INTRODUCTORY. 



The papers in this volume have been gathered from 

various sources, and are reprinted in the present form 

in the hope that they may awaken in the minds of 

thoughtful readers a new interest in the people of 

Africa. 

H. M. S. 



THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 



SERIES OF PAPERS 

ON THEIR CHARACTER, CONDITION, AND FUTURE 
PROSPECTS 



\ 



BY 



E. W. BLYDEN, D.D., TATLER LEWIS, D.D. 
n; THEODORE D WIGHT, Esq. 

ETC., ETC. 



Nero Cork 
ANSON D. F..RANDOLPH & CO. 

1871. 






•£T6T '83 *** 



ST. JOHNLAND STEBEOTYPE FOUNDEY, SUFFOLK COUNTY, N. Y. 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE 

L The Negeo in Ancient Histokt 1 

II. The Koean. Afeican Mohammedanism 35 

III. Condition and Chaeacteb of Negeoes in Afeica. i . . . 43 

IY. Condition of Education in Libeeia 62 

Y. Visit to Sieeea Leone in Febeuaey, 1871 , . . . 63 

VI. The Steian (Aeabic) College 66 

VII. Aeabic Manusceipt in "Westeen Afeica 69 

VIII. Mohammedanism in "Westeen Afeica 74 

IX. Remaekable Condition of the Afeican Field 99 

X. A Letter feom the King of Musadu 129 

XI. Exteacts feom the New Yoek State Colonization 

Jouenal for Apeil, 1871 139 



THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 



I. 
THE NEGBO IN ANCIENT HISTOET. 1 „ 

BY EEY. EDWARD W. BLYDEN, 

PKOFESSOR OF LANGUAGES, ETC., EN LE3ERIA COLLEGE. 

Fron?. the Methodist Quarterly Eeview, January, 1869. 

Presuming that no believer in the Bible will admit 
that the negro had his origin at the head waters of 
the Nile, on the banks of the Gambia, or in the 
neighborhood of the Zaire, we should like to inquire 
by what chasm is he separated from other descendants 
of Noah, who originated the great works of antiquity, 
so that with any truth it can be said that " if all that 
negroes of all generations have ever done were to be 
obliterated from recollection forever, the world would 
lose no great truth, no profitable art, no exemplary 
form of life. The loss of all that is African would 
offer no memorable deduction from anything but the 

1 This is, so far as we know, the first article in any Quarterly writ- 
ten by a hand claiming a pure Ethiopic lineage. The writer was 
born in the Island of St. Thomas, August 3, 1832, and is now thirty- 
nine years old. In 1845 he joined a Bible-class taught by Kev. John P. 
Knox, Pastor of the Eeformed Dutch Church in St. Thomas, under 
whose ministry he united with the church, and from that time 

l 



2 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

earth's black catalogue of crimes." * In singular con- 
trast with the disparaging statements of the naval 

looked forward to the Gospel ministry. On the return to the 
United States of Mr. and Mrs. Knox, in 1850, they brought the 
young man with them for a collegiate and theological education. 
Public sentiment was such as to deny him admission to our colleges, 
and he was about to return to the West Indies disappointed, when 
he received an offer from the New York State Colonization Society 
of a free passage to Liberia, and an education in the Alexander High 
School. A letter from Mrs. Knox, manifesting a deep interest in 
his welfare, and urging him to accept the offer and devote his life 
to perishing Africa, decided his doubts ; and embarking in the Libe- 
ria Packet from Baltimore, he landed in Liberia, January, 1851. 

He was soon accepted by the Presbyterian Missionary Board as a 
student for the ministry in the Alexander High School at Monrovia, 
then taught by Rev. D. A. Wilson, under whose tuition he rapidly 
became proficient in Latin and Greek as well as Geography and 
Mathematics. The Hebrew language not being embraced in the 
course of studies in the Alexander High School, he took up the 
study of it himself, and devoted for some time all his leisure hours 
to it, being anxious to read the entire Scriptures in the original 
languages, and especially those passages in the Old Testament 
which have reference to the African race. 

In 1858 the Presbytery of West Africa, after the usual examina- 
tion, licensed and ordained him to the Gospel ministry ; and the 
health of Eev. Mr. Wilson requiring him to return to the United 
States, Blyden was made principal of the institution as his succes- 
sor, which position he held till in 1861 he was elected Professor of 
Greek and Latin in the Liberia College, on the Fulton Professor- 
ship, held in trust by the New York State Colonization Society. 

In his early life he had acquired the colloquial use of the Spanish 
and Dutch languages, to which he has since added French, Ger- 
man, and Arabic. To this latter his attention was called by occa- 
sional intercourse with merchants from the interior of the Mandingo 
and other Mohammedan Negro nations, among whom the Koran is 
taught everywhere, and then becomes the medium of communica- 

1 Commander Foote, "Africa and the American Flag," p. 207. 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 6 

officer, Volney, the great French Oriental traveller and 
distinguished linguist, after visiting the wonders of 
Egypt and Ethiopia, exclaims, as if in mournful in- 
dignation, " How are we astonished when we reflect 
that to the race of negroes, at present our slaves, and 
the objects of our extreme contempt, we owe our arts 
and sciences, and even the very use of speech !" And 
we do not see how, with the records of the past acces- 
sible to us, it is possible to escape from the conclu- 
sions of Volney. If it cannot be shown that the 
negro race was separated by a wide and unapproach- 
able interval from the founders of Babylon and 
Nineveh, the builders of Babel and the Pyramids, then 
we claim for them a participation in those ancient 
works of science and art, and that not merely on the 
indefinite ground of a common humanity, but on the 
ground of close and direct relationship. 

Let us turn to the tenth chapter of Genesis, and 
consider the ethnographic allusions therein contained, 
receiving them in their own grand and catholic spirit. 
And we the more readily make our appeal to this 
remarkable portion of Holy Writ because it has 
" extorted the admiration of modern ethnologists, who 

tion by the educated travellers of different nations. Having made 
some progress in Arabic from books, and desiring to become more 
perfect in it, and especially to acquire a correct colloquial use of 
it, he in 1866 visited Syria and Beyrout College for this purpose. 

During his three months' sojourn in that vicinity, he was made 
the orator of the day at a Fourth of July meeting of the Americans 
— travellers and missionaries gathered on Mount Lebanon. 

The article in this volume on Mohammedanism in Western Africa, 
reprinted from the same Quarterly Review, is also from his pen. 

H. M. S. 



4 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

continually find in it anticipations of their greatest 
discoveries." Sir Henry Bawlinson says of this 
chapter : " The Toldoth Beni Noah (the Hebrew title 
of the chapter) is undoubtedly the most authentic record 
we possess for the affiliation of those branches of the 
human race which sprang from the triple stock of the 
Noachidae." And again: "We must be cautious in 
drawing direct ethnological inferences from the lin- 
guistic indications of a very early age. It would be 
far safer, at any rate, in these early times, to follow 
the general scheme of ethnic affiliation which is given 
in the tenth chapter of Genesis." * 

From the second to the fifth verse of this chapter 
we have the account of the descendants of Japheth and 
their places of residence, but we are told nothing of 
their doings or their productions. From the twenty- 
first verse to the end of the chapter we have the 
account of the descendants of Shem and of their 
" dwelling." Nothing is said of their works. But 
how different the account of the descendants of Cush, 
the eldest son of Ham, contained from the seventh to 
the twelfth verse. We read : " And Cush begat Nim- 
rod : he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He 
was a might} 7 hunter before the Lord. . . . And the 
beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and 
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of 
that land he went forth into Asshur, (marginal read- 
ing,) and builded Nineveh, and the city Kehoboth, and 
Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah : the 
same is a great city." 

We have adopted the marginal reading in our En- 
1 QuotGd by G. Eawlinson in Notes to " Bampton Lectures," 1859. 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 5 

glisli Bible, which represents Nimrod as having 
founded Nineveh, in addition to the other great works 
which he executed. This reading is supported by 
authorities, both Jewish and Christian, which cannot 
be set aside. The author of " Foundations of His- 
tory," without, perhaps, a due consideration of the 
original, affirms that Asshur was " one of the sons of 
Sheni !"' thus despoiling the descendants of Ham of the 
glory of having " builded " Nineveh. And to confirm 
this view he tells us that " Micah speaks of the land of 
Asshur and the land of Nimrod as distinct countries." 
We have searched in vain for the passage in which the 
Prophet makes such a representation. The verse to 
which this author directs us (Micah v. 6) is unfortunate 
for this theory. It is plain from the closing of the 
verse that the conjunction " and, " in the first clause, 
is not the simple copulative and or also, but is employ- 
ed, according to a well-known Hebrew usage, in the 
sense of even or namely, to introduce the words "land 
of Nimrod " as an explanatory or qualifying addition 
in apposition to the preceding "land of Assyria." 1 

We must take Asshur in Gen. x. 11, not as the sub- 
ject of the verb "went," but as the name of the place 
whither — the terminus ad quern. So Drs. Smith and 
Van Dyck, eminent Oriental scholars, understand the 
passage, and so they have rendered it in their admi- 
rable Arabic translation of the Bible, recently adopted 
by the British and Foreign Bible Society, namely, 
" Out of that land he (Nimrod) went forth unto Asshur 

1 See Conant's Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar, (17th edition,) sec- 
tion 155, (a) ; and for additional examples of this usage see Judges 
vii. 22 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 40 ; Jer. xv. 13, where even represents the con- 
junction van (and) in the original. 



6 THE PEOPLE OF AFPJCA. 

— Assyria — and builcled Nineveh." De Sola, Linclen- 
thal, and Raphall, learned Jews, so translate the pas- 
sage in their " New Translation of the Book of Gene- 
sis." 1 Dr. Kalisch, another Hebrew of the Hebrews, 
so renders the verse in his " Historical and Critical 
Commentary on Genesis." 2 All these authorities, and 
others we might mention, agree that to make the pas- 
sage descriptive of the Shemite Asshur is to do 
violence to the passage itself and its context. Asshur, 
moreover, is mentioned in his proper place in verse 22, 
and without the least indication of an intention of de- 
scribing him as the founder of a rival empire to Nim- 
rod. 3 Says Nachmanides, (quoted by De Sola, etc.) : 
" It would be strange if Asshur, a son of Shem, were 
mentioned among the descendants of Ham of whom 
Nimrod was one. It would be equally strange if the 
deeds of Asshur w r ere spoken of before his birth and 
descent had been mentioned." 

The grammatical objection to our view is satisfac- 
torily disposed of by Kalisch. 4 On the absence of 
the (lie) locale he remarks : " The (lie) locale, after 
verbs of motion, though frequently, is by no means 
uniformly, applied. (1 Kings xi. 17 ; 2 Kings xv. 14 ; 
etc.) Gesenius, whose authority no one will dispute, 
also admits the probability of the view we have taken, 
without raising any objection of grammatical struc- 
ture." 

1 London, 1844. 

2 London, 1858. See Dr. Robinson's view in Gesenius' s Hebrew- 
Lexicon, under the word Cush. 

5 See Kitto's Biblical Cyclopedia, article, Ham. London, 1866. 
4 Historical and Critical Commentary on Genesis. Heb. and Eng. 
P. 263. 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 7 

But enough on this point. We may reasonably 
suppose that the building of the tower of Babel was 
also the work, principally, of Cushites. For we read 
in the tenth verse that Nimrod's kingdom was in the 
land of Shinar ; and in the second verse of the eleventh 
chapter we are told that the people who undertook the 
building of the tower, " found a plain in the land of 
Shinar" which they considered suitable for the ambi- 
tious structure. And, no doubt, in the " scattering " 
which resulted, these sons of Ham found their way 
into Egypt, 1 where their descendants — inheriting the 
skill of their fathers, and guided by tradition — erected 
the pyramids in imitation of the celebrated tower. 
Herodotus says that the tower was six hundred and 
sixty feet high, or one hundred and seventy feet higher 
than the great pyramid of Cheops. It consisted of 
eight square towers one above another. The winding 
path is said to have been four miles in length. Strabo 
calls it a pyramid. 

But it may be said, The enterprising people who 
founded Babylon and Nineveh, settled Egypt and built 
the Pyramids, though descendants of Ham, were not 
black — were not negroes; for, granted that the negro 
race have descended from Ham, yet, when these great 
civilizing works were going on the descendants of Ham 
had not yet reached that portion of Africa, had not 
come in contact with those conditions of climate and 

1 It is certain that Mizraim, with his descendants, settled Egypt, 
giving his name to the country, which it still retains. The Arabic 
name for Egypt is Misr. In Psalm cv. 23, Egypt is called "the 
land of Ham." 



8 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

atmosphere which have produced that peculiar devel- 
opment of humanity known as the Negro. 
' "Well, let us see. It is not to be doubted that from 
the earliest ages the black complexion of some of the 
descendants of Noah was known. Ham, it would 
seem, was of a complexion darker than that of his 
brothers. The root of the name Ham, in Hebrew, 
Hamam, conveys the idea of hot or sivarthy. So the 
Greeks called the descendants of Ham, from their 
black complexion, Ethiopians, a word signifying burnt 
or black face. The Hebrews called them Cushites, a 
word probably of kindred meaning. Moses is said to 
have married a Cushite or Ethiopian woman, that is, a 
black woman descended from Cush. The query, " Can 
the Ethiopian change his skin?" seems to be decisive 
as to a difference of complexion between the Ethiopian 
and the Shemite, and the etymology of the word itself 
determines that the complexion of the former was 
black. The idea has been thrown out that the three 
principal colors now in the world — white, brown, and 
black — were represented in the ark in Japheth, Shem, 
and Ham. 

But were these enterprising descendants of Ham 
tuoolly-haired ? — a peculiarity that, in these days, seems 
to be considered a characteristic mark of degradation 
and servility. 1 On this point let us consult Herodotus, 

1 While Rev. Elias Schrenk, a German missionary laboring on the 
Gold Coast, in giving evidence on the condition of West Africa be- 
fore a committee of the House of Commons in May, 1865, was 
making a statement of the proficiency of some of the natives in 
his school in Greek and other branches of literature, he was inter- 
rupted by Mr. Cheetham, a member of the committee, with the 
inquiry : "Were those young men of pure African blood? " '• Yes, ' 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 9 

called " the father of history." He lived nearly three 
thousand years . ago. Having travelled extensively in 
Egypt and the neighboring countries, he wrote from 
personal observation. His testimony is that of an 
ej^e-witness. He tells us that there were two divisions 
of Ethiopians, who did not differ at all from each 
other in appearance, except in their language and 
hair; "for the eastern Ethiopians," he says, " are 
straight-haired, but those of Libya (or Africa) have 
hair more curly than that of any other people." 1 He 
records also the following passage, which fixes the 
physical characteristics of the Egyptians and some of 
their mighty neighbors : 2 

The Colchians were evidently Egyptians, and I say this, hav- 
ing myself observed it before I heard it from others ; and as it 
was a matter of interest to me, I inquired of both people, and 
the Colchians had more recollection of the Egyptians than the 
Egyptians had of the Colchians ; yet the Egyptians said that 
they thought the Colchians had descended from the army of 
Sesostris ; and I formed my conjecture, not only because they 
are black in complexion and woolly-haired, for this amounts to 
nothing, because others are so likewise, etc., etc. 3 

Eawlinson has clearly shown 4 that these statements 

replied Mr. Schrenk, "decidedly; thick Hps and black skin." 
"And woolly hair?" added Mr. Cheetham. "And woolly hair," 
subjoined Mr. Schrenk. (See "Parliamentary Report on Western 
Africa for 1865," p. 145.) 

1 Herodotus, iii. 94 ; vii. 70. 

J It is not necessary, however, to consider all Egyptians as ne- 
groes, black in complexion and woolly-haired ; this is contradicted 
by their mummies and portraits. Blumenbach discovered three 
varieties of physiognomy on the Egyptian paintings and sculptures ; 
but he describes the general or national type as exhibiting a certain 
approximation to the Negro. 

3 Herodotus, ii. 104. 4 Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. chap. 3. 

1* 



10 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

of Herodotus have been too strongly confirmed by all 
recent researches (among the cuneiform inscriptions) 
in comparative philology to be set aside by the totter- 
ing criticism of such superficial inquirers as the Notts 
and Gliddons, el id omne genus, who base their 
assertions on ingenious conjectures. Pindar and 
JEschylus corroborate the assertions of Herodotus. 

Homer, who lived still earlier than Herodotus, and 
who had also travelled in Egypt, makes frequent 
mention of the Ethiopians. He bears the same 
testimony as Herodotus as to their division into two 
sections : 

Al^ioita^y roi dix^d SeSaiarai, edxaroi avSpGov, 
'Oi juiv dvdojusvov 'Vitepiovoi, oi d? dviovroS — * 

which Pope freely renders : 

" A race divided, whom with sloping rays 
The rising and descending sun surveys." 

And Homer seems to have entertained the very high- 
est opinion of these Ethiopians. It would appear that 
he was so struck with the wonderful works of these 
people, which he saw in Egypt and the surrounding 
country, that he raises their authors above mortals, 
and makes them associates of the gods. Jupiter, and 
sometimes the whole Olympian family with him, is 
often made to betake himself to Ethiopia to hold con- 
verse with and partake of the hospitality of the Ethi- 
opians. 1 

But it may be asked, Are we to suppose that the 
Guinea negro, with all his peculiarities, is descended 
from these people ? "We answer, Yes. The descend- 

i Odyssey, i, 23, 24. 2 ni a a, i. 423 ; xxiii. 206. 



THE NEGEO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 11 

ants of Ham, in those early ages, like the European 
nations of the present day, made extensive migrations 
and conquests. They occupied a portion of two 
continents. While the Shemites had but little con- 
nection with Africa, the descendants of Ham, on the 
contrary, beginning their operations in Asia, spread 
westward and southward, so that as early as the time 
of Homer they had not only occupied the northern 
portions of Africa, but had crossed the great desert, 
penetrated into Soudan, and made their way to the 
w r est coast. " As far as w T e know," says that dis- 
tinguished Homeric scholar, Mr. Gladstone, " Homer 
recognized the African coast by placing the Lotophagi 
upon it, and the Ethiopians inland from the East all 
the way to the extreme West." 1 

Some time ago Professor Owen, of the New York 
Free Academy, well known for his remarkable accu- 
racy in editing the ancient classics, solicited the 
opinion of Professor Lewis of the New York Uni- 
versity, another eminent scholar, as to the localities 
to which Homer's Ethiopians ought to be assigned. 
Professor Lewis gave a reply which so pleased Profes- 
sor Owen that he gives it entire in his notes on the 
Odyssey, as " the most rational and veritable com- 
ment of any he had met with." It is as follows : 

I have always, in commenting on the passage to which you 
refer, explained it to my classes as denoting the black race, 
(or Ethiopians, as they were called in Homer's time,) living 
on the eastern and western coast of Africa — the one class in- 
habiting the country now called Abyssinia, and the other that 
part of Africa called Guinea or the Slave Coast. The com- 

i "Homer arkd the Homeric Age," vol. hi. p. 305. 



12 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

nion explanation that it refers to two divisions of Upper 
Egypt separated by the Nile, besides, as I believe, being 
geographically incorrect, (the Nile really making no such 
division,) does not seem to be of sufficient importance to 
warrant the strong expressions of the text. (Odyssey, i. 22-24. ) 
If it be said the view I have taken supposes too great a knowl- 
edge of geography in Homer, we need only bear in mind that 
he had undoubtedly visited Tyre, where the existence of the 
black race on the "West of Africa had been known from the 
earliest times. The Tyrians, in their long voyages, having 
discovered a race on the West, in almost every respect similar 
to those better known in the East, would, from their remote 
distance from each other, and not knowing of any intervening 
nations in Africa, naturally style them the two extremities of 
the earth. (Homer's sdxaroi avSpaov.) Homer elsewhere 
speaks of the Pigmies, who are described by Herodotus and 
Diodorus Siculus as residing in the interior of Africa, (on a 
river which I think corresponds to what is now called the 
Niger.) It seems to me too extravagant language, even for 
poetry, to represent two nations, separated only by a river, as 
living, one at the rising, the other at the setting sun, although 
these terms may sometimes be used for East and West. Be- 
sides, if I am not mistaken, no such division is recognized in 
subsequent geography. * 

Professor Lewis saj^s nothing of the Asiatic division 
of the Ethiopians. But since his letter was penned — 
more than twenty years ago — floods of light have been 
thrown upon the subject of Oriental antiquities by the 
labors of M. Botta, Layard, Bawlinson, Hiuks, and 
others. Even Bunsen, not very long ago, declared 
that "the idea of an 'Asiatic Gusli' was an imagina- 
tion of interpreters, the child of despair." But in 
1858, Sir Henry Bawlinson having obtained a number 
of Babylonian documents more ancient than any pre- 
1 Owen's Homer's Odyssey, (Fifth Edition,) p. 306. 



THE NEGEO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 13 

tiously discovered, was able to declare authoritatively 
that the early inhabitants of South Babylonia tuere of a 
cognate race with the primitive colonists both of Arabia and 
of the African Ethiopia. 1 He found their vocabulary to 
be undoubtedly Cushite or Ethiopian, belonging to that 
stock of tongues which in the sequel were everywhere 
more or less mixed up with the Semitic languages, but 
of which we have the purest modern specimens in the 
" Mahra of Southern Arabia," and the " Galla of Abys- 
sinia." He also produced evidence of the widely-spread 
settlements of the children of Ham in Asia as tvell as 
Africa, and (what is more especially valuable in our 
present inquiry) of the truth of the tenth chapter of 
Genesis as an ethnographical document of the highest 
importance. 1 

Now, we should like to ask, If the negroes found at 
this moment along the West and East coast, and 
throughout Central Africa, are not descended from the 
ancient Ethiopians, from whom are they descended ? 
And if they are the children of the Ethiopians, what 
is the force of the assertions continually repeated, by 
even v professed friends of the negro, that the enter- 
prising and good-looking tribes of the continent, such 
as Lalofs, Mandingoes, and Foulahs, are mixed with 
the blood of Caucasians ? 3 With the records of 
ancient history before us, where is the necessity for 
supposing such an admixture ? May not the intelli- I 
gence, the activity, the elegant features and limbs of j 

1 Rawlinson's Herodotus. Vol. i. p. 442. 

2 See Article Ham, in Kitto's Cyclopedia. Last Edition. 

3 Bowen's " Central Africa, " chap. xxii. 



14 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

these tribes have been directly transmitted from their 
ancestors ? 

The Foulahs have a tradition that they are the descendants 
of Phut, the son of Ham. Whether this tradition be true or 
not, it is a singular fact that they have prefixed this name to 
almost every district of any extent which they have ever 
occupied. They have Futa-Torro, near Senegal ; Euta-Bondu 
and Futa-Xallon to the north-east of Sierra Leone. x 

Lenormant was of the opinion that Phut peopled 
Libya. 

"We gather from the ancient writers already quoted 
that the Ethiopians were celebrated for their beauty. 
Herodotus speaks of them as "men of large stature, 
very handsome and long-lived." And he uses these 
epithets in connection with the Ethiopians of West 
Africa, as the context shows. The whole passage is 
as follows : 

Where the meridian declines toward the setting sun (that is, 
south-west from Greece) the Ethiopian territory reaches, 
being the extreme part of the habitable world. It produces 
much gold, huge elephants, wild trees of all kinds, ebony, and 
men of large stature, very handsome, and long-lived. 2 

Homer frequently tells us of the "handsome Ethi- 
opians," although he and Herodotus do not employ 
the same Greek word. In Herodotus the word that 
describes the Ethiopians is naXoi — a word denoting 
both beauty of outward form and moral beauty, or 
virtue. 3 The epithet (a^vjucov) employed by Homer to 
describe the same people, is by some commentators 
rendered " blameless," but by the generality " hand- 

* Wilson's Western Africa, p. 79. 2 Herodotus, iii. 114. 

3 Liddell and Scott. 



THE NEGIK) IN ANCIENT HISTOIIY. 15 

some." Anthon says : " It is an epitliet given to all 
men and women distinguished by rank, exploits, or 
beauty." 1 Mr. Haynian, one of the latest and most 
industrious editors of Homer, has in one of his notes 
the following explanation : 'a^vjugov was at first an 
epitliet of distinctive excellence, but had become a 
purely conventional style, as applied to a class, like 
our ' honorable and gallant gentleman.' " 2 Most 
scholars, however, agree with Mr. Paley, another 
recent Homeric commentator, that the original signi- 
fication of the word was " handsome," and that it 
nearly represented the xaXoS naya^oi of the Greeks ; z 
so that the words which Homer puts into the mouth 
of Thetis when addressing her disconsolate son (Iliad, 
i. 423) would be, " Yesterday Jupiter went to Oceanus, 
to the handsome Ethiopians, to a banquet, and with 
him went all the gods." It is remarkable that the 
Chaldee, according to Bush, has the following trans- 
lation of Numbers xii. 1 : " And Miriam and Aaron 
spake against Moses because of the beautiful woman 
whom he had married ; for he had married a beautiful 
woman." 4 Compare with this Solomon's declaration, 
" I am black but comely" or, more exactly, " I am 
black and comely." We see the wise man in his 
spiritual epithalamium selecting a black woman as a 
proper representative of the Church and of the 
highest purity. The Hebrew word, translated in our 
version black, is a correct rendering. So Luther, 
sclucarz. It cannot mean brown, as rendered by 
Ostervald (brune) and Diodati (bruna.) In Lev. 

1 Anthon's Homer, p. 491. 2 Hayman's Odyssey, i. 29. 

3 Paley' s Iliad, p. 215. Note. 4 Bush, in loco. 



16 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

xiii. 31, 37, it is applied to liair. The verb from 
which the adjective comes is used (Job xxx. 30) of 
the countenance blackened by disease. In Solomon's 
Song, v. 11, it is applied to the plumage of a raven. 1 
In the days of Solomon, therefore, black, as a physical 
attribute, was comely. 

But when, in the course of ages, the Ethiopians had 
wandered into the central and southern regions of 
Africa, encountering a change of climate and altered 
character of food and modes of living, they fell into 
intellectual and physical degradation. This degrada- 
tion did not consist, however, in a change of color, as 
some suppose, for they were black, as we have seen, 
before they left their original seat. Nor did it consist 
in the stiffening and shortening of the hair ; for Hero- 
dotus tells us that the Ethiopians in Asia were straight' 
haired, while their relatives in Africa, from the same 
stock and in no lower stage of progress, were woolly- 
haired. The hair, then, is not a fundamental char- 
acteristic, nor a mark of degradation. Some suppose 
that the hair of the negro is affected by some peculi- 
arity in the African climate and atmosphere — perhaps 
the influence of the Sahara entering as an important 
element. We do not profess to know the fons et 
origo, nor have we seen any satisfactory cause for it 
assigned. We have no consciousness of any inconve- 
nience from it, except that in foreign countries, as a 

1 A correspondent of the New York Tribune, residing in Syria, 
describing the appearance of a negro whom he met there in 1866> 
says : " He was as black as a Mount Lebanon raven." ( N. Y. 
Tribune, October 16, 1866.) Had he been writing in Hebrew he 
would have employed the descriptive word in^ 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 17 

jovial fellow-passenger on an English steamer once 
reminded us, " it is unpopular" 

" Vuolsi co si cola, dove si puote 
Oio che si vuole : e piu non dimandare." l 

Nor should it be thought strange that the Ethiopians 
who penetrated into the heart of the African continent 
should have degenerated, when we consider their 
distance and isolation from the quickening influence 
of the arts and sciences in the East ; their belief, 
brought with them, in the most abominable idolatry, 
" changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, 
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" Rom. i. 23 ; 
the ease with which, in the prolific regions to which 
they had come, they could secure the means of sub- 
sistence ; and the constant and enervating heat of the 
climate, indisposing to continuous exertion. Students 
in natural history tell us that animals of the same 
species and family, if dispersed and domesticated, 
show striking modifications of the original type, in 
their color, hair, integument, structure of limbs, and 
even in their instincts, habits, and powers. Similar 
changes are witnessed among mankind. An intelli- 
gent writer in No. 48 of the "Dublin University 
Magazine," says : 

There are certain districts in Leitrim, Sligo, and Mayo, 
chiefly inhabited by the descendants of the native Irish, driv- 
en by the British from Armagh and the South of Down about 
two centuries ago. These people, whose ancestors were well- 
grown, able-bodied, and comely, are now reduced to an ave- 
rage stature of five feet two inches, are pot-bellied, bow-legged, 
and abortively featured : and they are especially remarkable 

1 Dante. 



18 THE PEOPLE OF AEEIOA. 

for open projecting months, and prominent teeth, and exposed 
gnms, their advancing cheek-bones and depressed noses bear- 
ing barbarism in their very front. In other words, within so 
short a period, they seem to have acquired a prognathous 
type of skull, like the Australian savages. 

But these retrogressive changes are taking place in 
other countries besides Ireland. Acute observers tell 
us that in England, the abode of the highest civiliza- 
tion of modern times, " a process of de-civilization, a 
relapse toward barbarism, is seen in the debased and 
degraded classes, with a coincident deterioration of 
physical type." Mr. Henry Mayhew, in his " London 
Labor and London Poor," has remarked that 

Among them, according as they partake more or less of the 
pure vagabond nature, doing nothing whatever for their liv- 
ing, but moving from place to place, preying on the earnings 
of the more industrious portion of the community, so will the 
attributes of the nomadic races be found more or less marked 
in them ; and they are more or less distinguished by their high 
cheek-bones and protruding jaws ; thus showing that kind of 
mixture of the pyramidal with the prognathous type which is 
to be seen among the most degraded of the Malayo-Polynesian 
races. 

In contrast with this retrogressive process, it may 
be observed that in proportion as the degraded races 
are intellectually and morally elevated, their physical 
appearance improves. Mr. C. S. Eoundell, Secretary 
to the late Royal Commission in Jamaica, tells us 
that 

The Maroons who fell under my (his) own observation in 
Jamaica, exhibited a marked superiority in respect of comport- 
ment, mental capacity, and physical type — a superiority to be 
referred to the saving effects of long- enjoyed freedom. The 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 19 

Maroons are descendants of runaway Spanish slaves, who at 
the time of the British conquest established themselves in the 
mountain fastnesses. ' 

In visiting the native towns interior to Liberia, we 
have seen striking illustrations of these principles. 
Among the inhabitants of those towns we could invari- 
ably distinguish the free man from the slave. There 
w r as about the former a dignity of appearance, an 
openness of countenance, an independence of air, a 
firmness of step, which indicated the absence of 
oppression ; while in the latter there was a depression 
of countenance, a general deformity of appearance, an 
aw r kwardness of gait, which seemed to say, " That 
man is a slave." 

Now, w T ith these well-known principles before us, 
' why should it be considered strange that, with their ( 
fall into barbarism, the "handsome" Ethiopians of ' 
Homer and Herodotus should have deteriorated in \ 
physical type — and that this degradation of type j 
should continue reproducing itself in the wilds of 
Africa and in the Western Hemisphere, where they 
have been subjected to slavery and various other 
forms of debasing proscription ? 

e 'HjLtidv yap r ; aperrjS aitoaivvrai Evpvoita Zev$ 
'AvepoZ, 8vt j dv juiv uard dovXiov ?}/iap eXrjtiiv. 1 

The Negro is often taunted by superficial investiga- 
tors wdth proofs, as is alleged, taken from the monu- 
ments of Egypt, of the servitude of Negroes in very 

1 " England and her Subject Races, with special reference tc 
Jamaica." By Charles Sayille Roundell, M. A. 

2 Odyssey, xyii. 322, 323. 



20 THE PEOPLE OF AFKICA. 

remote ages. But is there anything singular in the 
fact that in very early times Negroes were held in 
bondage? Was it not the practice among all the 
early nations to enslave each other ? Why should it 
be pointed to as an exceptional thing that Ethiopians 
were represented as slaves ? It was very natural that 
the more powerful Ethiopians should seize upon the 
weaker, as is done to this day in certain portions of 
Africa, and reduce them to slavery. And were it not 
for the abounding light of Christianity now enjoyed in 
Europe, the same thing would be done at this moment 
in Borne, Paris, and London. For the sites of those 
cities in ancient times witnessed all the horrors of a 
cruel and mercenary slave-trade, not in Negroes, but 
Caucasian selling Caucasian. 1 

But were there no Caucasian slaves in Egypt ? If 
it be true that no such slaves are represented on the 
monumental remains, are we, therefore, to infer that 
they did not exist in that country ? Are we to disbe- 
lieve that the Jews were in the most rigorous bondage 
in that land for four hundred years ? 

1 Cicero, in one of his letters, speaking of the success of an expe- 
dition against Britain, says the only plunder to be found consisted 
" Ex eniancipiis ; ex quibus nullos puto te Uteris aut musicis erudi- 
tos expectare ;" thus proving, in the same sentence, the existence of 
the slave trade, and intimating that it was impossible that any 
Briton should be intelligent enough to be worthy to serve the ac- 
complished Atticus. (Ad. Att., lib. iv. 16.) Henry, in his History 
of England, gives us also the authority of Strabo for the prevalence 
of the slave trade among the Britons, and tells us that slaves were 
once an established article of export. " Great numbers," says he, 
' ' were exported from Britain, and were to be seen exposed for sale, 
like cattle, in the Koman market." — Henry, vol. ii. p. 225. Also, 
Sir T. Fowell Buxton's " Slave Trade and Remedy" — Introduction, 



THE NEGBO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 21 

Not every thing which is not represented on the monuments 
was therefore necessarily unknown to the Egyptians. The 
monuments are neither intended to furnish, nor can they fur- 
nish, a complete delineation of all the branches of public and 
private life, of all the products and phenomena of the whole 
animal, vegetable, and mineral creations of the country. They 
cannot be viewed as a complete cyclopedia of Egyptian cus- 
toms and civilization. Thus we find no representation of 
fowls and pigeons, although the country abounded in them ; 
of the wild ass and wild boar, although frequently met with in 
Egypt ; none of the process relating to the casting of statues 
and other objects in bronze, although many similar subjects 
connected with the arts are represented ; none of the marriage 
ceremony, and of numerous other subjects. l 

But we are told that the Negroes of Central and 
"West Africa have proved themselves essentially infe- 
rior, from the fact, that in the long period of three 
thousand years they have shown no signs of progress. 
In their country, it is alleged, are to be found no indi- 
cations of architectural taste or skill, or of any suscep- 
tibility of aesthetic or artistic improvement; that they 
have no monuments of past exploits ; no paintings or 
sculptures ; and that, therefore, the foreign or Ameri- / 
can slave-trade was an indispensable agency in the 
civilization of Africa ; that nothing could have been 
done for the Negro while he remained in his own land, 
bound to the practices of ages; that he needed the 
sudden and violent severance from home to deliver 
him from the quiescent degradation and stagnant bar- 
barism of his ancestors ; that otherwise the civilization 
of Europe could never have impressed him. 

In reply to all this we remark : 1st, That it remains 
to be proved, by a fuller explanation of the interior, 

1 Dr. Kalisch : " Commentary on Exodus," p. 147. London, 1855. 



22 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

that there are no architectural remains, no works of 
artistic skill ; 2dly, If it should be demonstrated that 
nothing of the kind exists, this would not necessarily 
prove essential inferiority on the part of the African. 
What did the Jews produce in all the long period of 
their history before and after their bondage to the 
Egyptians, among whom, it might be supposed, they 
would have made some progress in science and art? 
Their forefathers dwelt in tents before their Egyptian 
residence, and they dwelt in tents after their emanci- 
pation. And in all their long national history they 
'produced no remarkable architectural monument but 
the Temple, which was designed and executed by a 
man miraculously endowed for the purpose. A high 
antiquarian authority tells us that " pure Shemites 
had no art." 1 The lack of architectural and artistic 
skill is no mark of the absence of the higher elements 
of character. 2 3rdly, With regard to the necessity of 
the slave trade, we remark, without attempting to 

1 Rev. Stuart Poole, of the British Museum, before the British 
Association, 1864. 

2 Rev. Dr. Goulburn, in his reply to Dr. Temple's celebrated 
Essay on the "Education of the World," has the following sugges- 
tive remark : " We commend to Dr. Temple's notice the pregnant 
fact, that in the earliest extant history of mankind it is stated that 
arts, both ornamental and useful, (and arts are the great medium of 
civilization,) took their rise in the family of Cain. In the line of 
Seth we find none of this mental and social development." — Replies 
to Essays and Reviews, p. 34. When the various causes now co-op- 
erating shall have produced a higher religious sense among the na- 
tions, and a corresponding revolution shall have taken place in the 
estimation now put upon material objects, the effort may be to show, 
to his disparagement — if we could imagine such an unamiable under, 
taking as compatible with the high state of progress then attained — 
that the Negro was at the foundation of all material development. 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTOEY. 23 

enter into the secret counsels of the Most High, that 
without the foreign slave trade Africa would have 
been a great deal more accessible to civilization, and 
would now, had peaceful and legitimate intercourse 
been kept up with her from the middle of the fifteenth 
century, be taking her stand next to Europe in civili- 
zation, science, and religion. "When, four hundred 
years ago, the Portuguese discovered this coast, they 
found the natives living in considerable peace and 
quietness, and with a certain degree of prosperity. 
Internal feuds, of course, the tribes sometimes had, 
but by no means so serious as they afterward became 
under the stimulating influence of the slave trade. 
From all we can gather, the tribes in this part of 
Africa lived in a condition not very different from that 
of the greater portion of Europe in the Middle Ages. 
There was the same oppression of the weak by the 
strong ; the same resistance by the weak, often taking 
the form of general rebellion ; the same private and 
hereditary wars ; the same strongholds in every 
prominent position ; the same dependence of the peo- 
ple upon the chief who happened to be in power ; the 
same contentedness of the masses with the tyrannical 
rule. But there was industry and activity, and in 
every town there were manufactures, and they sent 
across the continent to Egypt and the Barbary States 
other articles besides slaves. 

v The permanence for centuries of the social and 

j/political states of the Africans at home must be 

/ attributed, first, to the isolation of the people from the 

I progressive portion of mankind ; and, secondly, to the 

blighting influence of the traffic introduced among 



24 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

tliem by Europeans. Had not the demand arisen in 
America for African laborers, and bad European 
nations inaugurated regular traffic with the coast, the 
natives would have shown themselves as impressible 
for change, as susceptible of improvement, as capable 
of acquiring knowledge and accumulating wealth, as 
the natives of Europe. Combination of capital and 
co-operation of energies would have done for this 
land what they have done for others. Private enter- 
prise, (which has been entirely destroyed by the 
nefarious traffic,) encouraged by humane intercourse 
with foreign lands, would have developed agriculture, 
manufactures, and commerce ; would have cleared, 
drained, and fertilized the country, and built towns ; 
would have improved the looms/ brought in plows, 
steam-engines, printing-presses, machines, and the 
thousand processes and appliances by which the com- 
fort, progress, and usefulness of mankind are secured. 
But, alas ! Dis aliter visum. 

" Freighted with curses was the bark that bore 
The spoilers of the West to Guinea's shore ; 
Heavy with groans of anguish blew the gales 
That swelled that fatal bark's returning sails : 
Loud and perpetual o'er the Atlantic's waves, 
For guilty ages, rolled the tide of slaves ; 
A tide that knew no fall, no turn, no rest — ■ 
Constant as day and night from East to "West, 
Still widening, deepening, swelling in its course 
With boundless ruin and resistless force." — Montgomeet. 

But although, amid the violent shocks of those 
changes and disasters to which the natives of this 
outraged land have been subject, their knowledge of 
the elegant arts, brought from the East, declined, 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 25 

tliey never entirely lost the necessary arts of life. They 
still understand the workmanship of iron, and, in some 
sections of the country, of gold. The loom and the 
forge are in constant use among them. In remote 
regions, where they have no intercourse with Euro- 
peans, they raise large herds of cattle and innumerable 
sheep and goats ; capture and train horses, build 
well-laid-out towns, cultivate extensive fields, and 
manufacture earthenware and woolen and cotton 
cloths. Commander Foote says : " The Negro arts 
are respectable, and would have been more so had 
not disturbance and waste come with the slave-trade." 1 
And in our own times, on the West Coast of Africa, 
a native development of literature has been brought 
to light of genuine home-growth. The Vey people, 
residing half way between Sierra Leone and Cape 
Mesurado, have within the last thirty years invented a 
syllabic alphabet, with which they are now writing 
their own language, and by which they are maintain- 
ing among themselves an extensive epistolary corre- 
spondence. In 1849 the Church Missionary Society 
in London, having heard of this invention, authorized 
their missionary, Eev. S. W. Koelle, to investigate the 
subject. Mr. Koelle travelled into the interior, and 
brought away three manuscripts, with translations. 
The symbols are phonetic, and constitute a syllaba- 
rium, not an alphabet ; they are nearly two hundred 
in number. They have been learned so generally that 
Vey boys in Monrovia frequently receive communica- 
tions from their friends in the Vey country, to which 
they readily respond. The Church Missionary Society 

1 " Africa and tne American Flag," p. 52. 
2 



26 THE PEOPLE OF AFKICA. 

have had a font of type cast in this new character, 
and several little tracts have been printed and circu- 
lated among the tribe. The principal inventor of this 
alphabet is now dead ; but it is supposed that he 
died in the Christian faith, having acquired some 
knowledge of the way of salvation through the medium 
of this character of his own invention. 1 Dr. Wilson 
saj^s : 

This invention is one of the most remarkable achievements 
of this or any other age, and is itself enough to silence forever 
the cavils and sneers of those who think so contemptuously of 
the intellectual endowments of the African race. 

Though " the idea of communicating thoughts in 
writing was probably suggested by the use of Arabic 
among the Mandingoes," yet the invention was pro- 
perly original, showing the existence of genius in the 
native African who has never been in foreign slavery, 
and proves that he carries in his bosom germs of 
intellectual development and self-elevation, which 
would have enabled him to advance regularly in the 
path of progress, had it not been for the blighting 
influence of the slave-trade. 

Now are we to believe that such a people have 
been doomed, by the terms of any curse, to be the 
"servant of servants," as some upholders of Negro 
slavery have taught ? Would it not have been a very 
singular theory that a people destined to servitude 
should begin, the very first thing, as we have endea- 
vored to show, to found "great cities," organize 
kingdoms, and establish rule — putting up structures 

1 Wilson's " Western Africa," p. 95, and "Princeton Review for 
July, 1858," p. 488, 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 27 

which have come clown to this day as a witness to 
their superiority over all their contemporaries — and 
that, by a Providential decree, the people whom they 
had been fated to serve should be held in bondage by 
them four hundred years ? 

The remarkable enterprise of the Cushite hero, Ninirod ; his 
establishment of imperial power, as an advance on patriarchal 
government ; the strength of the Egypt of Mizraim, and its long 
domination over the house of Israel ; and the evidence which 
now and then appears, that even Phut (who is the obscurest in 
his fortunes of all the Hamite race) maintained a relation to the 
descendants of Shem which was far from servile or subject ; 
do all clearly tend to limit the application of Noah's maledic- 
tory prophecy to the precise terms in which it was indited : 
" Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he " (not Cush, 
not Mizraim, not Phut, but he) " be to his brethren." If we 
then confine the imprecation to Canaan, we can without diffi- 
culty trace its accomplishment in the subjugation of the tribes 
which issued from him to the children of Israel from the time 
of Joshua to that of David. Here would be verified Canaan's 
servile relation to Shem ; and when imperial Borne finally 
wrested the sceptre from Judah, and, " dwelling in the tents 
of Shem," occupied the East and whatever remnants of Canaan 
were left in it, would not this accomplish that further predic- 
tion that Japheth, too, should be lord of Canaan, and that 
(as it would seem to be tacitly implied) mediately, through his 
occupancy of the tents of Shem ? l 

A vigorous writer in the "Princeton Review" has 
the following : 

The Ethiopian race, from whom the modern Negro or Afri- 
can stock are undoubtedly descended, can claim as early a 
history, with the exception of the Jews, 2 as any living people 

1 Dr. Peter Holmes, Oxford, England. 

2 The Jews not excepted. Where were they when the Pyramids 
were built ? 



28 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

on the face of the earth. History, as well as the monumen- 
tal discoveries, gives them a place in ancient history as far 
back as Egypt herself, if not farther. But what has become 
of the contemporaneous nations of antiquity, as well as others 
of much later origin ? "Where are the Numidians, Mauritani- 
ans, and other powerful names, who once held sway over all 
Northern Africa ? They have been swept away from the earth, 
or dwindled down to a handful of modern Copts and Berbers 
of doubtful descent. 

The Ethiopian, or African race, on the other hand,, though 
they have long since lost all the civilization which once existed 
on the Upper Nile, have, nevertheless, continued to increase 
and multiply, until they are now, with the exception of the Chi- 
nese, the largest single family of men on the face of the earth. 
They have extended themselves in every direction over that 
great continent, from the southern borders of the Great Saha- 
ra to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the Atlantic to the In- 
dian Ocean, and are thus constituted masters of at least three- 
fourths of the habitable portions of this great continent* 
And this progress has been made, be it remembered, in de- 
spite of the prevalence of the foreign slave-trade, which has 
carried off so many of their people ; of the ceaseless internal 
feuds and wars that have been waged among themselves ; and 
of a conspiracy, as it were, among all surrounding nations, to 
trample out their national existence. Surely their history is a 
remarkable one ; but not more so, perhaps, than is foresha- 
dowed in the prophecies of the Old Scriptures. God has watch- 
ed over and preserved these people through all the vicissitudes 
of their unwritten history, and no doubt for some great pur- 
pose of mercy toward them, as well as for the display of the 
glory of his own grace and providence ; and we may expect to 
have a full revelation of this purpose and glory as soon as the 
everlasting Gospel is made known to these benighted millions. 1 

One palpable reason may be assigned why the Ethi- 
opian race has continued to exist under the most 
i "Princeton Eeview," July 1858, pp. 448, 449. 



THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 29 

adverse circumstances, while other races and tribes 
have perished from the earth ; it is this : they have 
never been a bloodthirsty or avaricious people. From 
the beginning of their history to the present time their 
work has been constructive, except when they have 
been stimulated to wasting wars by the* covetous for- 
eigner. They have built v/p in Asia. Africa, and 
America. They have not delighted in despoiling and 
oppressing others. The nations enumerated by the 
reviewer just quoted, and others besides them — all 
warlike and fighting nations — have passed away or 
dwindled into utter insignificance. They seem to 
have been consumed by their own fierce internal pas- 
sions. The Ethiopians, though brave and powerful, 
were not a fighting people, that is, were not fond of 
fighting for the sake of humbling and impoverishing 
other people. Every reader of history will remember 
the straightforward, brave, and truly Christian answer 
returned by the King of the Ethiopians to Cambyses, 
who was contemplating an invasion of Ethiopia, as 
recorded by Herodotus. For the sake of those who 
may not have access to that work, we reproduce the 
narrative here. About five hundred years before 
Christ, Cambyses, the great Persian warrior, while in- 
vading Egypt, planned an expedition against the Ethi- 
opians ; but before proceeding upon the belligerent 
enterprises he sent 

" Spies, in the first instance, who were to see the table of the 
sun, which was said to exist among the Ethiopians, and be- 
sides, to explore other things, and, to cover their design, they 
were to carry presents to the King. . . . When the messen- 
gers of Cambyses arrived among the Ethiopians they gave the 
presents to the King, and addressed him as follows : " Oamby- 



33 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

ses, King of the Persians, desirous of becoming your friend and 
ally, lias sent us, bidding us confer with you, and he presents 
you with these gifts, which are such as he himself most delights 
in." 

But the Ethiopian knowing that they came as spies, 
spoke thus to them : 

6 ' Neither has the King of Persia sent you with these pre- 
sents to me because he valued my alliance, nor do you speak 
the truth, for you are come as spies of my kingdom. ]STor is 
he a just man ; for if he were just he would not desire any other 
territory than his own ; nor would he reduce people into ser- 
vitude who have done him no injury. However, give him this 
bow, and say these words to him : ' The King of the Ethiopi- 
ans advises the King of the Persians, when the Persians can 
thus easily draw a bow of this size, then to make war on the 
Macrobian Ethiopians with more numerous forces ; but until 
that time let him thank the gods, who have not inspired the 
sons of the Ethiopians with the desire of adding another land 
to their own. ' " 1 

Are these a people, with such remarkable antece- 
dents, and in the whole of Avhose history the hand of 
God is so plainly seen, to be treated with the con- 
tempt which they usually suffer in the lands of their 
bondage ? When we notice the scornful indifference 
with which the Negro is spoken of by certain politi- 
cians in America, we fancy that the attitude of 
Pharaoh and the aristocratic Egyptians must have 
been precisely similar toward the Jews. "We fancy 
we see one of the magicians in council, after the first 
visit of Moses demanding the release of the Israelites, 
rising up with indignation and pouring out a torrent 

i Herodotus, iii. 17-22. 



THE NEGKO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 33 

of scornful invective such as any rabid anti-Negro 
politician might now indulge in. 

What privileges are those that these degraded 
Hebrews are craving? What are they? Are they 
not slaves and the descendants of slaves ? What have 
they or their ancestors ever done ? What can they 
do ? They did not come hither of their own accord. 
The first of them was brought to this country a slave, 
sold to us by his own brethren. Others followed him, 
refugees from the famine of an impoverished country. 
What do they know about managing liberty or con- 
trolling themselves ? They are idle ; they are idle. 
Divert their attention from their idle dreams by addi- 
tional labor and more exacting tasks. 

But what have the ancestors of Negroes ever done ? 
Let Professor Rawlinson answer, as a summing up of 
our discussion. Says the learned Professor : 

For the last three thousand years the world has been mainly 
indebted for its advancement to the Semitic and Indo-Euro- 
pean races ; but it teas otherwise in the first ages. Egypt and 
Babylon, Mizraim and Nimrod — both descendants of Ham — led 
the way, and acted as the pioneers of mankind in the various 
untrodden fields of art, literature, and science. Alphabetic 
writing, astronomy, history, chronology, architecture, plastic 
art, sculpture, navigation, agriculture, textile industry, seem 
all of them to have had their origin in one or other of these two 
countries. The beginnings may have been often humble 
enough. We may laugh at the rude picture-writing, the un- 
couth brick pyramid, the coarse fabric, the homely and ill- 
shapen instruments, as they present themselves to our notice 
in the remains of these ancient nations ; but they are really 
worthier of our admiration than of our ridicule. The inven- 
tors of any art are among the greatest benefactors of their race, 



32 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

and mankind at the present day lies under infinite obligations 
to the genius of these early ages. 1 

There are now, probably, few thoughtful and culti- 
vated men in the United States who are prepared to 
advocate the application of the curse of Noah to all 
the descendants of Ham. The experience of the last 
eight years must have convinced the most ardent 
theorizer on the subject. Facts have not borne out 
their theory and predictions concerning the race. The 
Lord by his outstretched arm has dashed their syllo- 
gisms to atoms, scattered their dogmas to the winds, 
detected the partiality and exaggerating tendency of 
their method, and shown the injustice of that heartless 
philosophy and that unrelenting theology which con- 
signed a whole race of men to hopeless and intermi- 
nable servitude. 

It is difficult, nevertheless, to understand how, with 
the history of the past accessible, the facts of the 
present before their eyes, and the prospect of a 
clouded future, or unvailed only to disclose the indefi- 
nite numerical increase of Europeans in the land, the 
blacks of the United States can hope for any distinct, 
appreciable influence in the country. We cannot 
perceive on what grounds the most sanguine among 
their friends can suppose that there will be so decisive 
a revolution of popular feeling in favor of their jwoteges 
as to make them at once the political and social equals 
of their former masters. Legislation cannot secure 
them this equality in the United States any more 
than it has secured it for the blacks in the West 
Indies. During the time of slavery everything in the 
1 "Five Great Monarchies,'' vol. i. pp. 75, 7§. 



THE NEGKO IN ANCIENT HISTORY. 33 

laws, in the customs, in the education of the people 
was contrived with the single view of degrading the 
Negro in his own estimation and that of others. Now 
is it possible to change in a day the habits and 
character which centuries of oppression have entailed ? 
"We think not. More than one generation, it appears 
to us, must pass away before the full effect of educa- 
tion, enlightenment, and social improvement will be 
visible among the blacks. « Meanwhile they are being 
gradually absorbed by the Caucasian ; and before 
their social equality comes to be conceded they will 
/have lost their identity altogether; a result, in our 
opinion, extremely undesirable, as w r e believe that, 
as Negroes, they might accomplish a great work 
which others cannot perform.* But even if they 
should not pass away in the mighty embrace of their 
numerous white neighbors ; grant that they could con- 
tinue to live in the land, a distinct people, with the 
marked peculiarities they possess, having the same 
color and hair, badges of a former thraldom — is it to 
be supposed that they can ever overtake a people who 
so largely outnumber them, and a large proportion of 
whom are endowed with wealth, leisure, and the habits 
and means of study and self-improvement ? If they im- 
prove in culture and training, as in time they no 
doubt will, and become intelligent and educated, there 
may rise up individuals among them, here and there, 
who will be respected and honored by the whites ; 
but it is plain that, as a class, their inferiority will 
never cease until they cease to be a distinct people, 
possessing peculiarities which suggest antecedents of 
servility and degradation. 

2* 



34 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

"We pen tliese lines "with the most solemn feelings 
— grieved that so many strong, intelligent, and ener- 
getic black men should be wasting time and labor in 
a fruitless contest, which, expended in the primitive 
land of their fathers— a land that so much needs them 
—would produce in a comparatively short time results 
of incalculable importance. But what can we do ? 
Occupying this distant stand-point — an area of Negro 
freedom and a scene for untrammeled growth and 
development, but a wide and ever-expanding field for 
benevolent effort ; an outlying. or surrounding wilder- 
ness to be reclaimed ; barbarism of ages to be brought 
over to Christian life — we can only repeat with un- 
diminished earnestness the wish we have frequently 
expressed elsewhere^that the eyes of the blacks may be 
opened to discern their true mission and destiny ; that, 
making their escape from the house of bondage, they 
may betake themselves to their ancestral home, and assist 
in constructing a Christian African empire/ For we 
believe that as descendants of Ham had a share, as 
the most prominent actors on the scene, in the found- 
ing of cities and in the organization of government, so 
members of the same family, developed under different 
circumstances, will have an important part in the 
closing of the great drama. 

" Time's noblest offspring is the last." 



II. 

THE KOEAN. AFBICAN MOHAMMEDANISM, 

BY TAYLEB LEWIS, LL.D. 
From the New York Independent, April 6, 1871. 

Several months ago Dr. Pinney, the well-known 
agent of the Colonization Society, brought to me a 
manuscript copy of the Koran, written by a Mandingo 
Negro. It commenced abruptly with the XlXth 
Sin'at, or chapter, but from thence continued unbroken 
to the end. 

It was very beautifully written in the large, bold 
hand that distinguishes the Western style of Arabic 
writing, and bore quite a strong resemblance to some 
of the older and more distinct specimens of Arabic 
chirography given in De Sacy's Grammar. It had 
interlined, or rather between each verse, and some- 
times between clauses and single words, a running 
commentary in red ink, and occupying about as much 
space as the text. This was made up by brief extracts 
from the great Koranic commentators, such as Beid- 
hawi and Zamakhshari. A peculiar feature, however, 
was the continual recurrence of very plain grammatical 
notes, given in the peculiar technics of Arabic gram- 
mar, but evidently adapted to young and uninstructed 
minds. They pointed out sometimes the number of 



36 THE PEOPLE OF APEICA. 

tlie noun or the object of the verb, and very frequently 
the meaning of the more learned or less known words. 
The inference from this was that it had been tran- 
scribed from some copy much used in schools. Dr. 
Pinney thought it had been written from memory. 
This would seem hardly possible ; and yet the wonder 
is much diminished by what we are told of Moham- 
medan teachers, some of whom have read and recited 
the Koran hundreds and even thousands of times. 
There could be no doubt, however, of its having been 
written in Liberia, in a very rapid manner, and by one 
removed from aids he might have had in his native 
home. The very appearance of this curious volume 
gave evidence of the way in which it had been made 
up ; for it was nothing more, externally, than a coarse 
folio ledger, like those employed in the custom-house, 
and furnished to the native scribe for this particular 
service. 

I could not help feeling a wonderful interest in this 
strange book. It seemed like a stream of light coming 
from one of the darkest places of the earth, as many, 
in their ignorance, have regarded it. This single 
volume, thus constructed, brought evidence of many 
other things along with it. It told us of religion 
where we had thought there existed only the grossest 
forms of Fetish idolatry, for the most orthodox 
Christian need not hesitate to say that Mohammedan- 
ism is religion, pure religion, as far as it goes. The 
Koran is a very devout book. There appears every- 
where in it the Yirath JeJioivah, or religion in its pure 
primary etymological idea, as " the fear of the Lord 
is the beginning of wisdom." Besides its pure mono- 



THE KORAN. AFRICAN MOHAMMEDANISM. 37 

theistic aspect, Mohammedanism is eminently a 
religion of prayer, though lacking the Christian idea 
of a divine human mediatorship. God as lawgiver, 
as judge, as an ever-watchful Providence, never losing- 
sight of individuals or nations, appears on almost 
every page of the Koran. It represents him as the 
executor of a stern retribution, and yet as exhibiting a 
melting tenderness that reminds us of the strong 
contrasts of the Hebrew prophets. In short, there 
are to be found in it, most powerfully expressed, those 
fearful aspects of religion which give to the more 
loving attributes nf Deity their most precious value, 
but which seem to be losing their dread conservative 
force, even in what we call our " evangelical theology." 
The Resurrection, the great and final judgment, the 
doom of the wicked— it would be difficult to find 
language stronger than that in which the Koran sets 
forth these, whilst ever holding up the thought of a 
particular Providence, and of a retribution that never 
slumbers, even in this world. A thing, however, to be 
especially noted is the strong contrast it seems fond of 
presenting between the present and the future life ; 
although its pictures of the latter may be justly 
blamed as having too much of a sensual aspect. 
This contrast appears in the very names so oft occur- 
ring. The present world is dunya, the near, the mean, 
the inferior ; it is ajelicn, the hastening, transient, swiftly 
passing away ; the life to come (the acher at, or aitev 
state) is chuldun, the abiding, the perennial, the eternal. 
We may, as Christians, fearlessly admit those 
excellencies of the Koran, when we call to mind an 
important and even essential distinction between it 



38 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

and other books called sacred, which some are fond of 
placing in parallelism with, the Christian Scriptures. 
The Koran is a reflection of the Bible ; it is grounded 
on the old Testament Scriptures ; it would never. have 
been had not Judaism and Christianity been before it. 
It professes to be a revival of the grand old patri- 
archal or Abrahamic worship. It might almost be 
called an apocryphal book of the Bible, ranking 
among writings which we esteem most valuable or 
even sacred, and having a reflection, as it were, of the 
Bible inspiration, though we cannot regard them as 
canonical, or possessed of the same Christ-sanctioned 
authority. The Koran admits the divine authority of 
the Scriptures, both New and Old. It speaks not 
only reverently, but tenderly and lovingly, of Jesus, 
or " Im hen Maryam, the "Word of Truth," as it calls 
him, Surat xix. 35 ; and it is only in some few places 
of the later chapters that there is anything incon- 
sistent with this spirit. Throughout the better part 
of the book the Kafirs who are to be forced into truth 
by the sword are the unclean and bloody Pagan 
idolaters. 

Belief in Mohammedanism furnishes a more en- 
couraging basis for missionary effort than can be 
found among the followers of the worn-out religions of 
Brahma, Buddha, and Confucius. The very fact that 
the Koranic religion is sharply controversial is an 
evidence of its vitality. It has something to contend 
for, and we ought to esteem it the more highly on that 
very account. It is better to meet the zealous Islamite 
in this way than to encounter the meaningless panthe- 
ism of the Hindu, who has lately been so much 



THE KORAN. AFRICAN MOHAMMEDANISM. 39 

applauded by his fellow Nothingarians in England, or 
the stolid indifference of the Chinese, who says : 
" Our Josh, your Josh ; your Josh for you, our Josh 
for us ; all very good Josh." A contest with a re- 
ligion that has such a living basis to it, however 
erroneous or deficient we may esteem it, is all the 
more hopeful in the end ; and, for his own soul's 
health, the missionary might well prefer these Koran- 
taught Mandingo Negroes, as his field of labor, to the 
conscience-deadened inhabitants of Thibet, China, or 
Japan. 

The contrast between the religions is not greater 
than that between the books by which they are 
represented. • Take the cold abstractions, the dry 
mysticism, the thin philosophisms, which are held up 
to our admiration from the Hindoo books, whatever 
may be their date, or the poor, barren worldliness 
which is all that we get from the best selections made 
from the writings of Confucius ; compare them with 
the glowing devotion, the sublime earnestness, the 
pure, distinct, and lofty theism of the Koran, and we 
cease to wonder at the fact of its triumph wherever it 
met those lifeless creeds. It was not from age alone 
that they were powerless ; but because they never had 
in them that strong conservative element which dis- 
tinguishes the Christian, Jewish, and Mohammedan 
theism ; in other words, " the fear of tlie Lord," the 
awe of a holy, personal, retributive, sin-hating, right- 
loving God. We thus understand, too, why it is that 
Mohammedanism has so much vigor at the present 
day. 

The Koran is, indeed, a wonderful book. As a 



4:0 THE PEOPLE OP AFRICA. 

short yet convincing proof of this, I would refer the 
reader to an admirable article by Prof. Blyden, of 
Liberia College, in the January number of the Metho- 
dist Quarterly Revieiv} It gives a remarkably clear 
and striking account of African Mohammedanism. 
Taken in connection with another article on the same 
subject, and for the same Quarterly, written a number 
of years ago, by Prof. D wight, of Brooklyn, it de- 
serves the thorough and respectful study of all 
Christian scholars. 1 They w r ould make us ashamed, 
as we ought to be, of that vile prejudice against the 
Negro which still possesses the minds of so many, 
even among those who claim to be his friend. A 
special value, however, of this well-written article of 
Prof. Ely den (himself a colored man 2 ) is the intelli- 
gent and scholarly testimony it bears to the literary 
excellence of the Koran. This he defends, not only 
against the common ignorant estimate, but in opposi- 
tion to the great authority of Gibbon, who pronounces 
the book a series of " incoherent rhapsodies." Boldly, 
yet most justly and intelligently does Prof. Blyden 
maintain that the great historian ventures an opinion 
upon a matter of which, from his ignorance of the 
Arabic, as w r ell as from his own peculiar irreligious 
idiosyncrasy, he was a very incompetent judge. He 
misunderstood the poetical character of the Koran, 

1 Bo tli of which are inserted in this volume. 

2 I am almost ashamed to say this, even in a parenthesis. It has 
too much the look of a sort of patronizing condescension, or of 
making a wonder of what should be no wonder at all. There is no 
such thing as color in the literary world. There are, however, cer- 
tain readers for whose information it was thought best to let it 
stand. 



THE KORAN. AFRICAN MOHAMMEDANISM. 41 

and was unable to estimate the great loss it suffered 
by being stripped of its very musical and remarkable 
rhythm. This is well shown by the author of the 
article. But the argument may be carried still further. 
Not only does the thought, in such case, lose the 
added charm of its musical accompaniment ; but is, 
in itself, essentially injured. It is not merely the loss 
of euphony. By regarding it as prose, the reader is 
placed in a wrong position for judging of its ideal 
merit. The poetical portion of the Bible suffers in 
this waj r ; but less, because the rhythm, consist- 
ing mainly in the parallelism, wdiich is still, in a 
measure, preserved in the poorest translation, keeps 
up some feeling that it is poetry we are reading. 
In a translation, the Koran appears as the baldest 
prose. It suffers without any compensation ; and the 
reason can be briefly stated. The strength as w 7 ell as 
the beauty of poetry consists in the clear feeling of its 
emotional transitions. There is a real train of thought ; 
and it is all the more striking, when we perceive it, 
because its links are in the feeling, rather than in the 
logical understanding. A figure in one verse suggests 
an idea in that which follows. The flow of emotion 
carries us over the interval. We are on the lookout 
for transitions of this kind ; when they come, we are 
prepared for them. There is something of a pleasant 
surprise, indeed ; but this adds vigor to the emotion, 
and clearness to the thought of which the emotion is 
the life. We learn to recognize such connections, 
slight as they may appear in themselves, with even a 
livelier appreciation than those of a closer kind. This 
is because we are reading it as poetry, and are kept ^ 



42 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

in tliis channel of feeling by the constant suggestion 
of the rhythm. Now, when read as prose, not only is 
the rhythm lost, on which the thought runs smoothly 
(or on its wheels, as Solomon says, Prov. xxy. 11), but 

' the mind is turned altogether in a wrong direction for 
apprehending rightly the train of ideas. We immedi- 
ately expect the closer logical connections. Missing 
these, and not finding the emotional links that supply 
their place, we pronounce it, as Gibbon did, an un- 
meaning, incoherent rhapsody. 

Another Mandingo Arabic manuscript, in the same 
style with that of the Koran first mentioned, has been 
printed from photographic plates, through the liberal- 
ity of H. M. Schieffelin, of New York, and generously 
sent to persons interested in such studies. It is a let- 
ter from the King of Musadu, a town far in the inte- 
rior, to the President of Liberia, and written by the Ne- 
gro schoolmaster of the place. It possesses a similar 
interest in respect to its chirography, the religious feel- 
ing it occasionally exhibits, and its Koranic references. 
Its frequent blessings and invocations may be as se- 

■ rious, or they may be as formal, as the reciprocal salu- 
tations of Boaz and his reapers — Ruth ii. 4 ; but they 
indicate what may be called the communal religious 
interest — stereotyped, it may be, into formalism, -yet 
showing an original source once warm with religious 
zeal, and still preserving a measure of at least social 
vitality. Another interest of this letter is in the 
glimpse it gives us of Mandingo literature, as shown 
by its citations from the Makamat, or seances, of Ha- 
riri, the most renowned, perhaps, among the choice 
Arabian classics, and of which De Sacy has given 






THE KOBAH. AFRICAN MOHAMMEDANISM. 43 

such a splendid edition. There is a temptation to go 
into a fuller account of the Mandingo culture, as thus 
exhibited, but this communication is already too long, 
and sufficient has been said, perhaps, to arouse the 
attention of those who may have interest in such out- 
of-the-way matters. 



III. 

CONDITION AND CHAEACTEE OF NEGEOES 
IN AFEICA. 

BY THEODORE DWIGHT, ESQ. 
From the Methodist Quarterly Eeview, January, 1869. 

The erroneous impressions which prevail in the civ- 
ilized world respecting the condition of the Negro 
race in Africa are discreditable to the intelligence of 
the age. The people of the United States are doubly 
blamable for their false views on this subject, because 
we owe debts to that portion of our fellow r -men for 
ages of wrongs inflicted on them for our benefit, and 
because, with ample means wdthin our reach for cor- 
recting our erroneous opinions, w^e generally neglect 
them, and still persist in denying to Negroes those 
intellectual faculties and moral qualities which the 
Creator has bestowed on the entire human family. 
With the books of recent travellers in Africa in their 
hands, it may w T ell be wondered at that even our most 



44 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

intelligent and humane writers have not yet appealed 
to the testimony of Bowen, Livingstone, and Barth, to 
prove that millions of pagan Negroes, in different parts 
of that continent, have been for ages in the practice 
of some of the most important arts of life, dwelling in 
comfort and generally at peace ; while many other 
millions have been raised to a considerable degree of 
civilization by Mohammedism, and long existed in 
powerful independent states ; under various changes, 
it is true, but perhaps not so many or great as those 
through which the principal nations of "civilized 
Europe " passed during the same periods. 

To refer to but one portion of the vast regions of 
Africa inhabited by the Black Race, namely, that ex- 
tending along the southern border of the Great 
Desert, we find there, between the tenth and twentieth 
degrees of north latitude, five or six kingdoms, most 
of which have been in existence several centuries, and 
some a thousand years, mostly under the influence of 
Mohammedan institutions. These are everywhere 
similar, so far as they prevail, establishing fixed laws, 
customs, arts, and learning ; and, although abounding 
in errors and evils on the one side, embracing benefits 
on the other which are not enjoyed by such portions 
of the Negro race as remain in paganism. The Koran, 
as is well known, has copied from the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures many of the attributes of God and the doctrines 
of morality, with certain just views of the nature, 
capacities, duties, and destiny of man ; and these are 
so faithfully taught, that they are conspicuous in the 
writings of many of the numerous authors in Moham- 
medan countries, and often displayed, in a more or 



CONDITION OF ^EGROES IN AFRICA. 45 

less satisfactory degree, in the characters and lives of 
those educated in them. 

Want of space in these pages must necessarily limit 
our remarks to very narrow bounds, and we shall 
therefore be unable to present many details which 
would interest the reader, and can give only a few 
facts relating to Mohammedan learning, its nature, 
institutions, and results. This forms an essential part 
of the Moslem system, and has long been in operation 
on large families of the Negro race, and moulded them 
after the civilized model of the Arabs and Moors. 
^^k<&^^^ r , it favors, nay, requires, as a funda- 
mental principle, the free and universal reading and 
study of their sacred book ; and, instead of with- 
holding it from the people under penalties of death 
and perdition, it establishes schools for all classes, 
primarily to teach its languages and doctrines. Ex- 
tracts from the Koran form the earliest reading les- 
sons of children, and the commentaries and other 
works founded upon it furnish the principal subjects 
of the advanced studies. 

As this has always been the practice, it may not 
seem strange that learning flourished among the 
Moors, in Spain, during the Dark Ages of Europe, 
whifcPopery so- long overshadowed the nations with 
her worse than Egyptian darkness. Readers who 
have neglected Africa may not be prepared to believe 
that schools of different grades have existed for 
centuries in various interior negro countries, and 
under the provisions of law, in which even the poor 
are educated at the public expense, and in which the 
deserving are carried on many years through long 



46 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

courses of regular instruction. Nor is this system 
always confined to tlie Arabic language, or to tlie 
works of Arabian writers. A number of native lan- 
guages have been reduced to writing, books have been 
translated from tlie Arabic, and original works have 
been written in them. Schools also have been kept 
in which native languages are taught. Indeed, one of 
the most gratifying evidences has thus been furnished 
of the favorable influences exerted by the unrestricted 
use, as well as the general diffusion of the knowledge 
of letters ; while the truth is not less certain, because 
hitherto unknown, that large portions of the African 
Continent lie open to the access of Christian influences 
through channels thus prepared by education. 

These and other facts, which we shall not stop to 
mention, make it appear wonderful indeed that the 
African race should be judged by us only from that 
small and unfortunate portion of it found in the west- 
ern continent. Where is the excuse for looking only 
at ten millions, more or less, of slaves and descend- 
ants of slaves in America, and entirely neglecting to 
inquire into the condition and character, the history 
and capacities of the hundred or more millions of. 
negroes in their native countrv, who have had some 
opportunity to show what they are capable of? It is 
now time for public attention in the United States to 
be directed to Africa, and an attentive perusal of the 
most recent travels will afford the reader the details 
of many things which we can only cursorily mention 
in this article, while earlier publications will be found 
to afford confirmation of some of the most important 
facts. It certainly will bring more compunction to the 



CONDITION OF NEGROES IN AFRICA. 47 

hearts of tlie humane among us, to learn that the 
race which we have been accustomed to despise, as 
well as to ill treat, still lie under a load of evils per- 
petuated by the prejudices prevailing even among 
many of the most enlightened Christians ; and it will 
be surprising to be told, that among the victims of 
the slave-trade among us have been men of learning 
and pure and exalted characters, who have been 
treated like beasts of the field by those who claimed 
a purer religion. 

About a hundred years ago a report reached Eng- 
land that a young African slave in Maryland, named 
Job-ben-Solomon, was able to write Arabic, and 
appeared to be well-educated and well-bred. Mea- 
sures were taken to secure his release, ajicl he was sent 
to England, where he assisted Sir Hans Sloane in 
translating Arabic, and acquired a character of the 
highest kind for intelligence, judgment, morality, and 
kindness of heart. He was sent up the Gambia River 
to Bundu, where he was received with the warmest 
welcome, and the truth of his story was fully proved, 
he being the son of the hereditary prince of that part 
of the country. Several other Africans have been 
known at different periods, in different parts cf Amer- 
ica, somewhat resembling Job-ben-Solomon in ac- 
quirements ; but, unfortunately, no full account of 
any of them has ever been published. The writer has 
made many efforts to remedy this defect, and has 
obtained some information from a few individuals. 
But there are insuperable difficulties in the way in 
slave countries, arising from the jealousies of masters, 
and other causes, whi$h quite discouraged a gentle- 



48 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

man who made exertions in tlie Soutli some years 
since, and compelled hiin to abandon the undertaking 
in despair, although he had resided in Africa, and had 
both the taste and the ability necessary to success. 
The writer has found a few native Africans in the 
North, of whom only three were able to write, and 
only one had opportunity to give him long personal 
interviews. " Prince," or " Abcler-rahman," he saw 
once in New-York, about the year 1830 ; from " Mor- 
ro," or " Omar-ben-Sayeed," long living in Fayette- 
ville, N. C, he procured a sketch of his life in Arabic ; 
and from " Old Paul, 5 ' or " Lahmen Kibby," he ob- 
tained a great amount of most interesting information. 
That venerable old man was liberated in 1835, after, 
being about forty years a slave in South Carolina, 
Alabama, and other southern states, and spent about 
a year in New York, under the care of the Coloniza- 
tion Society, while waiting for a vessel to take him 
back to his native countiy. The writer held nume- 
rous and prolonged interviews with him, and found 
him deeply interested in making his communications 
concerning his native country and people, as well as 
his own history, for the purpose of having them 
published, for the information of Americans. He 
often said, " There are good men in America, but all 
are very ignorant of Africa. Write down what I tell 
you exactly as I say it, and be careful to distinguish 
between what I have seen and what I have only 
heard other people speak of. They may have made 
some mistakes ; but if you put down exactly what I 
say, by and by, when good men go to Africa, they will 
say, Paid told the truth" ± 



CONDITION OF NEGROES IN AFRICA. 49 

The writer lias since arranged and written out the 
voluminous notes which he took from the lips of the 
old man, (some of them in stenograph} 7 ,) and has 
added many extracts from travellers and others, 
all confirmatory of his statements, but has never 
found an opportunity to publish them. It appears 
that his aged informant was in possession of many 
facts still unknown even to the most learned of 
America and Europe, which the most bold and enter- 
prising travellers have failed to discover, though 
risking life, and even losing it, in the attempt Three 
or four pages on the subject, published in 1836 in the 
proceedings of the American Lyceum, attracted at- 
tention in Europe, and led the Paris Geographical 
Society to make repeated applications for more infor- 
mation ; and Dr. Latham quoted them as one of the 
only three authorities on the Sereculy language, in 
his learned paper presented to the British Scientific 
Association. Dr. Coelle, missionary of the Church 
Missionary Society, has since given a brief vocabulary 
of that language, (Paul's native tongue,) but without 
any particular information of the people. They are 
one of the negro families before alluded to, which are 
intermingled, without being amalgamated, over ex- 
tensive regions in Nigritia, partly Mohammedan and 
partly Pagan. 

His native country is Footah, peopled by several 
races, all governed by the Foolahs. This is the most 
western of the seven or eight separate and indepen- 
dent states or kingdoms lying in a remarkably regular 
series, and in a straight line along the southern 
boundary of the Great Desert, or Zahara, from Sene- 

3 



50 THE PEOPLE OP AFRICA. 

gambia to Nubia and Abyssinia. These have been 
recently visited by that learned and energetic travel- 
ler, Dr. Earth, whose three octavo volumes contain a 
vast amount of information concerning those fertile 
and populous regions, their history and condition, so 
materially affected by the influence of Mohammedism, 
which has prevailed in some of them for a thousand 
years. Why is it that ignorance of those countries 
still prevails among us? Why is the kingdom of 
Footah still so unknown, though only about three 
hundred miles distant from the Atlantic coast, and 
since the English and French have had trading posts 
on the Gambia and the Senegal for two hundred 
years? Because, as the Rev. Mr. Poole mentions in 
a late work, foreigners are still afraid to leave the 
rivers' side, having a dread of the wild beasts and 
savage men who are supposed to threaten death to 
every intruder who may venture to pass through the 
forests and swamps, which were long ravaged by 
slave-hunters, who sent their human victims to 
America. The Gambia and Senegal rise in the high 
grounds in the southern parts of Footah, and flow 
through much of its territory northward, and then 
turn west, to make their way through the low and hot 
district just mentioned to the coast. Only their lower 
waters are navigable, and only Park, Caillee, the 
Landers, and a few other travellers, have ever gone 
beyond the heads of navigation when in search of 
Timbuctoo or the Niger ; and the Eev. William Fox, 
the English Wesleyan missionary, who endeavored 
to establish a mission in Bundu about eighteen years 
ago. None of all these ever saw anything of Footah 



CONDITION OF NEGROES IN AFPJCA. 51 

except the extreme northern portion ; and all were 
ignorant of the numerous languages and dialects of 
the various tribes through which they passed. Nei- 
ther has any white man ever crossed the boundary of 
that first of the Mohammedan negro states, from 
Sierra Leone or Liberia, which lie below the Gam- 
bia. Mr. Seymour, a mulatto man of education and 
enterprise, originally from Hartford, went on foot 
from Monrovia, ab o u fe -foraiMff o fty Q - a ge, to near the 
southern confines of Footah, and found a varied, rich, 
and populous country, with numerous towns and 
villages, immense fields of rice, cotton, corn, vegeta- 
bles, etc. ; the people industrious and hospitable, 
manufacturing their clothes and iron, with regular 
fairs for the purchase and sale of numerous articles 
of domestic and foreign production. As one evidence 
of the erroneous impressions common in the world 
respecting the habits of Africans, it may be men- 
tioned that in that region, as in Yoruba, (a country 
fifteen hundred or two thouBfrod miles distant from 
it,) the women not onlj T sweep their houses frequently, 
but carry the dust outside of the gates of the towns. 
"Old Paul" was born in the southern part of 
Footah, and in his early childhood used to bring 
water in a calabash to his mother from the Cabab, 
one of the head streams of the Jalibah. He after- 
wards lived in the cities of Kebbe, or Kibby, and 
Bunclu, where he spent many years in studying under 
different masters. On several occasions he accom- 
panied caravans and armies on mercantile and mili- 
tary expeditions into adjacent and more distant 
countries, and his accounts of these abound in details 



52 THE PEOPLE OF AFPJCA. 

of great novelty and interest. The same may be said 
of liis communications on the history, customs, arts, 
religions, learning, languages, books, schools, teach- 
ers, travellers, productions, trade, etc., of the mixed 
people among whom he lived. In respect to its 
varied population, his country resembles the unex- 
plored regions before mentioned, lying between it and 
the sea-coast ; but as Footah is a Mohammedan coun- 
try, the religion of the false prophet affords a bond 
of union strong enough to hold the heterogeneous 
multitude under one government, and generally in the 
peaceful enjoyment of the laws, arts, and learning 
which belong to a Mohammedan community, being 
provided for by the Koran and claimed by its be- 
lievers. "When we bear in mind that the chief attri- 
butes of God and some of the principles of morality 
were copied into that book from the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures, we. may realize something of the difference 
between Mohammedan and Pagan countries in Africa. 
One great advantage of the former consists in the use 
of letters. Arabic is taught in schools wherever the 
priests can find pupils ; and such is their proselyting 
spirit, or rather (as we may truly say of many of them) 
their humane desire to diffuse the faith in which they 
conscientiously believe, that they are sometimes seen 
in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and other places far from 
their homes, teaching children to write the Arabic 
characters on the sand. 

Paul was a schoolmaster in Footah, after pursuing 
a long course of preparatory studies, and said that he 
had an aunt who was much more learned than him- 
self, and eminent for her superior acquirements and 



CONDITION OF NEGROES IN AFRICA. 53 

for her skill in teaching. Schools, he said, were 
generally established through the country, provision 
being made by law for educating children of all 
classes," the poor being taught gratuitously. All the 
details of the system he was ready to give in answer 
to inquiries, including the methods, rules, books, etc. 
The books, of course, were all in manuscript; and 
what has seemed difficult of belief, even by well-in- 
formed persons in our country, several native African 
languages were written in Arabic characters. He gave 
a catalogue of about thirty books in his own mother 
tongue, (the Sereculy or Serrawolly,) with some 
account. of their nature and contents. 

In consequence of these interesting communications, 
applications have been repeatedly made by the writer 
for specimens of negro writings ; and ar-few months 
ago he received, from President Benson and ex- 
President Roberts, several manuscripts of considerable 
length, written with neatness, uniformity, and elegance, 
which excite admiration. The compositions are 
original, having been written at Monrovia, at the 
request of those distinguished gentlemen, by accom- 
plished negro Mohammedan travellers on visits there 
from the interior. They have been translated by the 
Rev. Dr. Bird, of Hartford, and contain evidence of 
a sincere religious zeal in the writers, who address 
their solemn appeals to the unknown stranger who had 
requested a written communication from them, pre- 
suming, as it appears, that he was not a Moslem, and 
was, therefore, ignorant of his Maker, his obligations 
to him, and the importance of knowing and serving 
him. Some passages in those documents would be 



54 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

perfectly appropriate to a sermon, even in an Ameri- 
can pulpit, except that the idea of a Saviour is not 
expressed ; Vut there are other parts which dis^rf-fcbs~ 
extreme ignorance of the writers respectin^countries. 
distant from their own. One of the jrffinuscripts gives 
a description of China, full of the greatest extrava- 
gance, showing a degree of childish misconception and 
credulity which might be thought a proof of negro 
mental imbecility had we not in our hands Sir John 
Maundeville's Travels. That book, which w T as most 
extensively read in various languages in Europe four 
centuries ago, contains descriptions and pictures of 
men with two heads, and various other monsters, 
reported to be the inhabitants of fabulous countries, 
or lands barely known by name. 

The following interesting account we copy from the 
Rev. William Fox's History of the "Wesley an Mis- 
sions in Western Africa, page 462. It relates incidents 
of his journey to Footah-Bundu, where he attempted to 
establish a mission. That is the part, of the country 
where "Old Paul" completed his education. On 
arriving at Jume, he says it is a Serrawolly (or Sere- 
culy) town, " somewhat noted as being the residence 
of a Marraboo priest, named Kabba, who has 
scholars from different parts of the countiy. He was 
busy with his pupils, but immediately came to give us 
a hearty welcome, and soon after he sent me three 
fowls. Here our guide gave a history of our pro- 
ceedings from Kanipe to this place. After he had 
done the priest commenced a prayer for us; the 
people, with their hands upon their foreheads, as on 



CONDITION OF NEGROES IN AFPJCA. 55 

former occasions, saying, at the end of every sentence, 
' Amin ! amin !' " 

On the next clay, which was Sunday, Mr. Fox says 
" The priest was busy all the day, so that I had not 
an opportunity of speaking to him until the evening, 
when I presented him with a handsomely bound Ara- 
bic Testament, and held a lengthy conversation with 
him on the subject of experimental religion, in the 
presence of a large congregation." 

The next day, continues the narrator, " we rose 
early, and went to the priest to procure a guide. . . . 
Soon after the interview I accompanied the Moham- 
medan scribe to see his brother, who was sick, at 
whose request I prayed. . . . This place is one of the 
strongholds of the Mohammedan creed. ... A little 
before five P. M., the guide being ready, I immedi- 
ately mounted, and we were in the act of starting ; 
but the priest thought proper to give us his blessing, 
which he did by taking hold of my hands while on 
horseback, and saying something which I did not 
understand ; but the people around us were all 
attention, and they stood with both their hands open, 
as if they expected something to fall from the clouds 
at the close of the ceremony ; and, as before, they all 
said, Amin I amin ! We now proceeded, upward of 
one hundred of the inhabitants, men, women, and 
children, following us, sometimes completely sur- 
rounding my horse, wishing me to shake hands with 
them. I did so until I was tired, and ultimately was 
obliged to gallop off." 

The following passages from the Arabic manuscripts 
above referred to will interest the reader. They are 



56 THE PEOPLE OF APEICA. 

extracts from Dr. Bird's translation of an Arabic 
manuscript, written in Monrovia, by a negro from the 
interior, at the request of President Benson, of Libe- 
ria, for a gentleman in New York. The manuscript 
begins, like the chapters of the Koran, and all com- 
mon Arab writings, with these words : " In the name 
of God, the compassionate, the merciful," and adds : 
" May God bless our lord Mohammed, his prophet, 
and guard him and his disciples, and give him peace 
abundantly." Then follow several pages on "the 
Origin of Man," in which the creative power and the 
wisdom and benevolence of God are magnified ; after 
which the writer proceeds thus : 

And God said : "O children of Adam, when you arrive at 
the age of ten you are bordering on the years to men and wo- 
men, and you will "be expected to attend prayers and preach- 
ing, and bear testimony, and not fear the Bay of Judgment. 
You will be tempted by men, who will say : Pursue the ways 
of sin and disobedience and forgetfulness of what I, the Mer- 
ciful, have enjoined upon you times without number. O man 
of thirty years, reckon not yourself a little child, but a man 
grown. Attend to your fasts, your prayers, day and night ; 
and, if you continue thus day and night, you will be reckoned 
among the excellent of men, being, in secret and before the 
world, the same. Son of Adam, if you have come to forty 
years you have attained your full strength. The marks of full 
age bear witness to this ; your vigor is ripe, your mind is ma- 
ture ; what you have learned is written well on your memory. 
Guard against wine, and the indulgence of impurity. And then, 
thou son of fifty years, thou knowest the advantages thy love 
to the faith hath procured thee. It has brought thee into the 
society of the great, and it has pleased Him who is the pos- 
sessor of all excellency and power. Thou son of sixty years, 
from the decline of your strength your passions are cooled. 
Look at your noon of life, and judge how far your life and 



CONDITION OF NEGEOES IN AFRICA. 57 

death are in your power ; and, if you have not given up your 
hope in the word of God's prophet, (may God bless him !) you 
will have established for yourself a good household in these 
sixty years. O ye who heed not what shall come upon you, 
take care how you put any one in partnership with God ; for 
this is a dangerous sin, like that of the spilling of blood. O 
thou son of seventy years, estimate not yourself from the 
length of your past life, but from the nearness of your death. 
O thou man of ninety, death is coming upon you with power ; 
but there is no pain in Paradise. O man of a hundred, worn 
out with a hundred cares ; thou who hast challenged to thy- 
self the age of Noah, peace be on thee ! Alas ! alas ! how wilt 
thou meet thy reward and thy Eewarder ? The Most High 
has brought your stewardship to a close, according to the word 
of the Lord, who thus testifies to every man who has a heart 
and an ear : ' O ye old men, remember that the seed, after it 
has sprouted forth, and before the harvest, dies. ' O ye young 
people, how many that began life have been removed before 
growing up ! "Where are Charon and his host ? They have 
perished. Where are Shadad-ibn-Aad and his host ? They 
have perished. Where are Pharaoh, the accursed, and his 
host ? They have perished. Where are Nimrod, son of Ca- 
naan, and his host ? Where are the sons and daughters, fathers 
and mothers of the past idolaters ? All perished. Where are 
your own fathers and mothers, ancient and modern ? They 
also have all perished ; and be assured that your end will be 
the same as theirs." 

This passage in the manuscript is followed by seve- 
ral pages of fabulous names and dates, professing to 
be historical, and extravagant accounts of animals, the 
heavenly bodies, etc., in which mystical numbers 
are connected with childish errors and impossible 
events in great confusion. It would seem as if the 
author had endeavored to write on different subjects 
of which he once had read or heard, but, being far 

3* 



58 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

from his books, remembered correctly only the re- 
ligious doctrines, which had made a clearer impres- 
sion on his mind. 

The following are extracts from the translation of 
a manuscript received from ex-President Roberts. 
This also is written with great elegance and correct- 
ness, the proper names being in red ink, and the 
points carefully marked. This manuscript occupies 
sixteen letter-sheet pages ; the other, eighteen. 

In the name of God, most merciful and gracious, may God 
bless our lord Mohammed. 

Thanks be to God, who is worthy of all gratitude and praise, 
the forgiver of sins, the possessor of the throne of glory, who 
created all things by himself, who created death and life, and 
created the earth and the heavens, and made all creatures in 
heaven and in the earth, who made the race of man from 
water ; then he made the blood, the heart, and the bones, then 
he spread the flesh upon the bones, then he added the ten- 
dons. Then said God, (be he exalted,) who created you from 
the ground and from water, that we might show and confirm 
through mercy what we wish to every generation. ... O ye 
people, know ye that God is merciful toward you ; but that 
coming day will be terrible to the unbelievers, who live not as 
though there were a God, nor as if we were going to return to 
him. ... O ye people, fear God and serve your Lord. Do 
your good works before the dissolution of death. . . . That 
day, God has said, nothing will profit you but a pure heart. . 
Beware, yea, beware, lest you hear the truth without repent- 
ing, and thus debase yourself. If you are asleep, be aroused ; 
if you are ignorant, make inquiry ; if you are forgetful, refresh 
your memory ; for here are the learned, ready to instruct you : 
and, said he, on whom be peace, seek after knowledge. "\yeD- - 
then, you may say, for example, give us a desertion of 
China, ye men of knowledge. / 

China. — China is a distant country, so that, though yo 



CONDITION OF NEGROES IN AFRICA. 59 

\have shoes of iron, they would be worn out before von reach 
it. The name of the Sultan is Aivor. It is said that the 
journey between Medina and China is one of five years. 
. b say five hundred years. There are in China ten moun- 
tains. One of them has on it two trees, one of which can cover 
all the people of the country with its shadow ; at the same 
time, if a single man seeks a shelter under it, the shadow cov- 
ers him and no more. ... In China are found two kettles, in 
one of which they cook for all the inhabitants of the country, 
and they all eat their fill, and there is none too much. In the 
other they do cooking for strangers if they come among them, 
and they eat and are satisfied, and there is nothing over. 
There are in China two serpents, etc., etc. 

After a J^f' more such remarkable and incredible 
statement's, the writer says : 

This account of China may possibly be considered a blemish 
on this book ; but such is the character of the country, on the 
authority of the learned. 

He then commences a long and solemn appeal to 
the unknown person in whose name he had been re- 
quested to send something in writing, and whom he 
appears to have supposed to be ignorant of the first 
principles of religion, but for whom he feels an affec- 
tionate regard. 

O my brother's son, do not join yourself with Satan, for Sa- 
tan is your enemy, as God, the exalted, has said — for Satan is 
your enemy ; and will you make partnership with your ene- 
my ? . . . O, my brother's son, let not the affairs of this life 

aw away your affections. Follow not the wind ; do not de- 
ceive yourself, but be prepared, before sickness, or poverty, 
or old age engross your attention. God, the exalted, says, 
O man ! who has set you against your Lord, who created, 
shaped, and adjusted you, and put you together in the form 
that pleased him ? God, the exalted, says that the lif e of this 
world is of very little profit in the world to come. 







60 THE PEOPLE OF AFKICA. 

The following are extracts from a letter sent to " Old 
Paul" by a venerable old slave, long known at Fa- 
yetteville, N. C, and tliere called " Morro," in reply to 
one addressed to him, in 1836 : 

In the name of God, the compassionate, etc. I am not able 
to write my life. I have forgotten much of the language of 
the Arabs. I read not the grammatical, but little of the com- 
mon dialect. I ask thee, O brother, to reproach me not, for 
my eyes are weak, and my body also. [He was then about 
seventy-one years of age. ] 

My name is Omar-ben-Sayeed. The place of my birth is 
Footah-Toro, between the two rivers. [Probably the Sene- 
gal and Gambia, or the Senegal and Niger, in their upper 
parts.] The teachers of Bundu-foota were a sheik, named 
Mohammed-Sayeed, my brother, and the sheik Soleyman 
Kimba, and the sheik Jebraeel-Abdel. I was teacher twenty- 
five years. There came a great army to my country. They 
killed many people. They took me to the sea, and sold me in 
the hands of the Christians, who bound me, and sent me on 
board of a great ship. And we sailed a month and a half a 
month, when we came to a place called Charlestown in the 
Christian language. Here they sold me to a small, weak, and 
wicked man named Johnson, a complete infidel, who had no 
fear of God at all. Now I am a small man, and not able to do 
hard work. So I fled from the hands of Johnson, and, after 
a month, came to a place where I saw some houses. On the 
new moon I went into a large house to pray ; a lad saw me, 
and rode off to the place of his father, and informed him that 
he had seen a black man in the great house. A man named 
Handah (Hunter,) and another man with him, on horseback, 
came, attended by a troop of dogs. They took me and made 
me go with them twelve miles, to a place called Faydill, (Fa- 
yetteville,) where they put me in a great house, from which I 
could not go out. I continued in the great house, which in 
the Christian language they call jail, sixteen days and nights. 
One Friday the jailer came and opened the door, and I saw a 



CONDITION OF NEGHOES IN AFRICA. 61 

great many men, all of them Christians, some of whom called 
out, What is your name ? I did not understand their Chris 
tian language. 

A man called Bob Mumford took me and led me out of the 
jail, and I was very well pleased to go with them to their place. 
I staid at Mumford's four days and nights, and then a man 
named Jim Owen, son-in-law of Mumford, who married his 
daughter Betsey, asked me if I was willing to go to a place 
called Bladen. I said yes, I was willing. I went with them, 
and have remained on the place of Jim Owen until now. 

O people of North Carolina ! O people of South Carolina ! 

people of America, all of you ! you have a righteous man 
among you named James Owen, and with him John Owen. 
These are pious men. All that they eat I ate ! as they dressed 

1 dressed. James and his brother read to me the Gospel. God 
our Lord, our Creator, our King, the arbiter of our condition, 
the bountiful, opened to my heart the right way. 

The translator remarked as follows on the style of 
writing in the manuscript. 

The narrative is very obscure in language, the writer, as he 
himself declares, being ignorant of the grammatical forms. . . 
It is. written in a plain and, with few exceptions, very legible 
Moghrebby, or western Arabic character. ... It affords an 
idea of the degree of education among the Moslem blacks, 
when we see a man like this able to read and write a language 
so different from his own native tongue. Where is the youth, 
or even the adult, among the mass of our people, who is able 
to do the same in Latin or Greek ? 

By a fortunate incident the writer of one of the first- 
mentioned manuscripts from Liberia, added at the 
end half a page in some language unknown to the 
translator ; but doubtless some African tongue ; thus 
affording evidence of the interesting fact, so little 
known in our country, that native languages are 
written in Arabic characters. 



IV. 
CONDITION OF EDUCATION IN LIBEBIA. 

Lettees from leading men in Liberia in 1867 and 
1868 having represented that great numbers of colo- 
nists had come there from the United States, and were 
still coming, without any more education than the 
heathen natives, and that they were entirely destitute 
of the means of providing schools, and that the govern- 
ment was unable to help them; while great disaster 
threatened the country unless some provision was 
made for educating them, in the Autumn of 1868 the 
New York State Colonization Society sent out its Cor- 
responding Secretary, Bev. J. B. Pinney, D.D., who 
had during the last thirty years visited Liberia three or 
four times. Dr. Pinney made an exploration so 
thorough, that, as Professor Blyden wrote, he must be 
the best authority for years to come as to the condition 
of Liberia. Dr. Pinney found less than thirty schools, 
averaging not over twenty scholars each, to supply 
a population of five or six hundred thousand, natives 
and Americans, or about one scholar to every one 
thousand inhabitants. As Secretary of the New York 
State Colonization Society, he has, since his return, 
been exerting himself to supply schools, and has suc- 
ceeded in organizing fourteen small ones during the 
last year, at a cost of about one hundred and fifty 



CONDITION OF EDUCATION IN LIBERIA. 63 

dollars each, without, however, having secured any per- 
manent means for their continuance. 

Except the missions of the American churches, to 
which Liberia is indebted for the few schools which Dr. 
Pinney found there, he is alone in this effort, and should 
he discontinue it, what is to prevent the rising genera- 
tion from growing up as ignorant as their parents ; 
than which nothing could more endanger the success 
and stability of the Republic. 

Isaac J. Smith, Esq., President of the Metropolitan 
Savings Bank, No 1. Third Avenue, New York, is the 
Treasurer of the New T York State Colonization Society, 
and contributions for the support of these schools will 
be received by him, or the Rev. J. B. Pinney, D.D., 
22 Bible House, New York. 



Y. 

EXTEACTS FEOM PEOF. BlYDEN'S JOUENAL OF A 

VISIT TO SIERRA LEONE IN FEBRUARY, 1871. 

Monday, 16. — This morning I transferred myself and 
young Warner, my protege, to the Grammar School. 
I am now comfortably, or rather congenially, located, 
with a large library around me, and a learned negro to 
converse with. Mr. Quaker was born in Sierra Leone, 
of native parents, and educated partly at Fourah Bay, 
under Rev. E. Jones, and partly in England. He has 
been in charge of the Grammar School for twenty 
years, and has turned out, he informed me, over a 
thousand scholars. He now has about one hundred 



64 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

pupils — all, with one or two exceptions, pure negroes ; 
and a more orderly school, and a more intelligent and 
sprightly set of boys, I never saw. 

After leaving the Grammar School, I went to the 
Post-office. On my way thence I met a learned Man- 
dingo, very black, who spoke Arabic fluently. He was 
quite surprised at my speaking it. He asked me 
where I learned it. I told him principally from books, 
but that I had spent three months in the East. He 
followed me to my rooms, and we had a very interest- 
ing time together. He told me that he had himself 
travelled as far as Egypt and Jerusalem — " Bern Is- 
rael" as he called the Holy City. He spoke of the 
Mosque of Omar and the Mosque El-Aksa. After he 
left, my fame went abroad as an Arabic scholar (an 
alleged philological eminence which I sometimes re- 
gretted, though in some instances it was of great ser- 
vice to me, and perhaps to the cause of truth). In the 
evening a young man of Aku parentage, who spoke 
Arabic fluently, called upon me. He was born in 
Sierra Leone, but has travelled in the interior as far 
as Futa. He sat with me about one hour, conversing 
and reading Arabic. 

Thursday, 12. — To-day called upon the Chief-Jus- 
tice at the Barracks, who received me very courteously. 
He is a large, burly Englishman. He said he had 
been in the colony four years, and had not had one 
day's illness ; that he had abstained altogether from 
the use of brandy, &c. 

Friday, 13. — To-day spent most of the day at home, 
preparing to lecture this evening. At 7 o'clock P. M., 
a number of gentlemen called to accompany me to 



A VISIT TO SIEERA LEONE. 65 

the lecture. They sold tickets — price sixpence each. 
The Court Hall was nearly crowded. I lectured on 
"Mohammedanism in Western Africa." There were 
two learned Mohammedans present, and they seemed 
quite interested, as they understood both the English 
and my Arabic quotations and recitations from the 
Koran. 

Saturday, 14. — After breakfast I walked out to visit 
the market, which is unusually full and crowded on 
Saturdays. I saw hundreds of people from the 
neighboring villages selling. After breakfast I walked 
out for exercise, and met a tall, portly Mandingo, with 
flowing robe of spotless white, followed by a train of 
carriers, bearing hides. I went up and saluted him in 
Arabic. He looked at me with an air of surprise, and 
for a few seconds made me no reply. I addressed 
him again. He asked, " Where did yoxx learn Arabic?" 
1 told him. I asked him where he was from ? He 
replied Timbuctu (Timbuctoo). I asked him if he 
knew Kankan and Musardu and Madina. He said 
yes — that he sometimes went to Musardu to trade ; 
and he pointed to persons among his followers from 
different towns in the interior. 



VI. 
THE SYRIAN (Arabic) COLLEGE. 

As has already been stated, Professor Blyden 
visited the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, in 1866, 
for the purpose of perfecting his knowledge of the 
Arabic language. Previous to his visit, the Rev.. 
Daniel Bliss, D.D., the president of the institution, 
had sent to Liberia for distribution, in the interior, a 
number of volumes, on the fly leaves of which he had 
w T ritten in Arabic certain queries, and. requesting an- 
swers to them. They will be found in Mr. Blyden's 
account of the Arabic manuscript of Ibrahima Kaba- 
wee. The following brief account of the Syrian 
College, cannot fail to command the attention of those 
interested in the w 7 ork of modern missions. 

It is located in Beirut, the chief seaport of Syria, a 
city of 80,000 inhabitants, growing in size and impor- 
tance, and occupying a central position in respect to 
all the Arabic-speaking races. Planted at such a 
centre, the college will not only become a power in 
moulding the literary character and promoting the 
religious advancement of Syria, but will naturally ex- 
tend its blessings to the populations of the adjoining 
countries. 

The college is incorporated in accordance with the 
laws of the State of New York. A preparatory depart- 



THE SYRIAN (ARABIC) COLLEGE. 67 

ment was established in 1865, the regular course was 
begun in the autumn of the following } T ear, and the 
medical department added one year later. 

The language of the college is exclusively Arabic, 
the common tongue of Syria, and used by more than 
one hundred millions of people throughout the East. 
The course of instruction embraces the several branches 
of the Arabic language and literature, mathematics, the 
natural sciences, modern languages, Turkish, English, 
French and Latin, moral science, Biblical literature, 
and the various departments of medicine and surgery, 
in connection with which there is established a hospital, 
with dispensary and pharmacy, where more than five 
thousand cases have been treated, in most instances 
gratuitously. 

The institution is under the general control of 
trustees in the United States, where the present funds 
are invested, but local affairs are administered by a 
board of managers, composed of American and 
British missionaries, and residents in Syria and 
Egypt. 

The college is conducted upon strictly Protestant 
and Evangelical principles, but is open to students 
from any of the Oriental sects and nationalities who 
will conform to its regulations. More than eighty 
young men are now enjoying the advantages it offers. 

The sects now represented are the Protestant, 
Orthodox-Greek, Papal-Greek, Latin, Maronite, Druze, 
Armenian, and Coptic. Direct proselytism is not 
attempted ; but, without endeavoring to force Pro- 
testantism upon students of other sects, every effort is 
made by the personal intercourse of professors and 



68 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

instructors, in the class-room and at other times, and 
by the general exercises and arrangements of the 
institution, to bring each member into contact with the 
distinctive features of Evangelical truth. All boarders 
are required to be present at both morning and even- 
ing prayers, to attend Protestant worship and college 
Bible classes upon the Sabbath, and a recitation of 
the Scriptures or Biblical lectures during the week. 
The Bible is also used as a text-book for ordinary 
instruction. A voluntary weekly prayer-meeting has 
been carried on by the students, and several are 
engaged in Evangelical work in the city. 

A text book on Chemistry, and portions of a general 
work on Natural History have lately been published, 
and one on Anatomy is now in press. These books are 
illustrated. Works on Physiology, Pathology, Dis- 
eases of the Skin, Natural and Mental Philosophy, and 
higher mathematics, are ready for printing or in 
course of preparation, all in the Arabic language. 

Prof. D.Stuart Dodge, recently returned from Syria, 
is authorized to represent the interests of the college. 
Its Board of Trustees are : 

William A. Booth, President 

Hon. William E. Dodge, Treasurer. 

David Hoadley. 

Simeon B. Chittenden. 

A.BNER Kingman. 



New York. -< 



Boston. { . 



YIL 

AEABIC MANUSCRIPT IN "WESTERN 
AFRICA. 

The history and translation of the Arabic manu- 
script of which an exact fac simile copy, taken by 
photographic process, is annexed, will be found in the 
following extract of a letter from Professor Blyden to 
Mr. H. M. Schieffelin, of New York, dated, 

Monkovia, Bee. 7, 1870. 

" You will be gratified to learn that at the examina- 
tion of the Senior Class, which took place on the 25th 
ult., there was present a learned Muslim from Kankan, 
who had come in to visit me a few days previously. 

I invited him to attend the Senior examination. He 
came with his numerous manuscripts and took his seat 
among the examiners, between Professor Johnson and 
myself. When the Arabic class came forward, he 
seemed very much interested. After answering seve- 
ral preliminary questions on the history and sa- 
cred language of the Mohammedans, the students 
recited from memoiy passages from various parts of 
the Koran in Arabic. Whenever they would begin a 
passage, he would turn at once to it in a MS. Koran, 
which he had at his side. The students then read one 
of the Makamat of Hariri in the original (De Sacy's 



70 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

edition). Our Mohammedan visitor happened to 
have with him the whole of the fifty Makamat in ele- 
gant manuscript. He followed the students as they 
read, repeating after them in an undertone. Of course 
he could not judge of the translation, as he understood 
not a word of English. I communicated with him in 
Arabic. After the students had read I requested him 
to read the same portion, that they might hear his pro- 
nunciation. He read in the musical cantilating man- 
ner of the East, and the listener who had travelled in 
these countries might have fancied himself on the 
banks of the Nile, or on Mount Lebanon. 

It is now certain that Liberia College and the work 
that we are attempting to do here for Africa are known 
in the far interior, among the Arabic reading popula- 
tion : and by a little energetic management on our part 
it would be comparatively easy to establish regular 
intercourse between our schools and the schools of 
Misadu, Mediva, Kankan and Futah. Such relations 
would result in great good to our little republic, and to 
this portion of Africa. 

A few years ago — perhaps in 1864 — Rev. Daniel 
Bliss, D.D. , President of the Sjnrian Protestant College, 
at Beirut, sent to Liberia College several Arabic books 
printed in Syria for distribution among the Arabic 
reading people accessible to Liberia. On a blank leaf 
in each of the volumes was printed an Arabic letter, 
addressed " Erom the city of Beirut, in the country of 
Syria, to the noble lords living in Central Africa," pro- 
posing certain questions and requesting answers to 
them. 
. Some time ago I met a Mandingo priest — Kaifai — 



AEABIC MANUSCRIPT IN AFRICA. 71 

at Vonzwah, and requested liim to write answers to 
the questions. He complied with my request, but 
only partially. I gave a book containing the questions 
to my recent guest, and requested written answers from 
him : after reading them over carefully once or twice, 
he produced, calamo cur rente, the paper which I enclose 
herewith, and of which I send you a translation. 

The paper sent from Beirut I have translated as 
follows : 

From the city of Beirut, in the country of Syria, to the 
noble lords living in Central Africa. Peace to all. 

O ye Noble Lords ! 

"We have learned of the existence of tribes south of the 
great desert, whose dialect is the noble Arabic language, and 
that they extend from there to the central countries of Africa. 
As we desire information respecting them, we have taken this 
method for that purpose, hoping that whoever may chance to 
receive this paper will favor us with answers to the subjoined 
questions, by the hand of the head of the College of Liberia, 
which country is west from your country, as we have under- 
stood. By this means you will establish a connection between 
yourselves and the learned men of the College of Beirut, and 
the chief of its printing department ; and this may be an 
advantage to you. 

"What is your religion ? 

What is the number of your people ? 

Is there unity among the tribes whose language is the 
Arabic, or are they divided into separate communities ? 

Are they all under one government ? 

Where is its seat or capital ? 

Are all the Arabic tribes in your country of one religion ? 

"What is the extent of your country ? 

Are there among you many books — what are the names of 
the principal and most valuable ones ? 



72 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

Are there among you any authors— on what subjects have 

they written ? 

BEPLY. 

By Ibbahima Kabwee, a Native of Kankan. 

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Gracious. God bless 

our Lord Mohammed, his prophet, and his family, and his com- 

panions, and keep them safe. 

The learned men in our country Africa, to the learned men in 

Beirut, in the country of Syria. Peace to all. 

O ye Noble Loeds ! 

Your letter and your questions have reached us, and we 
desire to send you answers to your questions. 

You ask, "What is your religion?" Our religion is the 
religion of Islam. The number of our people is very, very 
great, and we are not divided into separate portions. We are 
all under one rule, and we belong to the sect of the Malikees. 1 
Our religion and the religion of the Arab is one religion. 
The extent of our country is from Rokoma (Boporo) to Sou- 
dan ; and from Misadu, and Mediva, and Kankan, and Futah, 
and Hamd-Allahi, and Jenne, and Timbuktu — all these cities 
have one religion. 

There are many books in our country, and the names of 
these books are, the Makamat, and all the Makamat are fifty ; 
and the name of the author of the Makamat is Abu Kasim Al- 
Hariri ; and another book is the Risdlat. The author of the 
Bisdlat is Abu Mohammed Salihu ; and the Tawhid, and Lo- 
ghat, and Tasrif and the Kamus, and the Koran, and Jalalu- 
din. But the Koran is the chief of all books ; men know it 
and do not know it ; they see it and do not see it ; they hear it 
and do not hear it. 

There are many authors among us, and they have written 
the encomiums of the prophet of God — the Bunmuhaib, the 
Watirati, the £alat Rabbe, and the Shifaee, and the Tanbihu- 

1 The Mohammedans are divided into four parties or persuasions — 
the "Hanafees," " Shafees," "Malikees" and "Hambaiees," so 
called from the names of the respective doctors whose tenets they 
have adopted. 
















i^r^w/^^ 










^ ^^^ ^^^w r i J ■•7 v V^** 



Reproduced by Photography from the original Arabic MSS. by the 
N. Y. Lith., Eng. & Printing Co., 16 & 18 Park Place. 



ARABIC MANUSCRIPT IN AFRICA. 73 

al-Anam, and the Dalail-al-Kheirdti. All these are concerning 
the prophet of God, who is the chief of creatures, the lord of 
men, of demons and of genii — Mohammed, the Apostle of 
God. (God bless him, and grant him peace.) 

The name of our town is Kankan, the name of the king of 
Kankan is Mahmud, and he is a Shafee by sect ; Mahmud is 
skilled in literature and in war. And the name of the Sheikh 
of Mahmud is Al-hajj. He went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and 
Lafa, and Merwa, and Mediva, and Syria, and Egypt. Then 
the pilgrim returned to Timbuktu, and journeyed from Tim- 
buktu to Hamd-Allahi, and from Hamd-Allahi to Sofala, and 
from Sofala to Jenne, and from Jenne to Kankan. 

The authors born in our town Kankan, are : our Sheikh, 
Mohammed Shereef. He is the author of two books, and the 
names of the books are : Bawdat Saadat (the Garden of De- 
light), and Maadan Zahab (The Mine of Gold) ; and our 
Sheikh, Abubeker Shereef. He is the author of one book, 
and the name of his book is Daly a Saghir ; and Amru Alkidi. 
He is the author of many books ; the name of his town is 
Mowa. The Imam of Kankan is Abubeker Shereef. 

In our town is much wealth, and the inhabitants are all 
Muslims. And there are horses, and asses, and mules, and 
sheep, • and goats, and fowls, and gold, and silver, all in great 
abundance in the town of Kankan. 

The journey from Misadu to Kankan is nine days, and on 
the road are many pagans ; and the journey from Kankan to 
Futah is six days. The King of Kankan is a Shafee by sect. 
The King of Misadu is partly Moslem and partly pagan. The 
King of Bokoma is a great pagan, his name is Labsu Moham- 
med. Praise be to God, the Lord of the three worlds. 

The name of the writer of this is Ibrahima Kabawee. 



YIIL 
MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTEEN AFEICA. 

From the Methodist Quarterly Keview, January, 1871. 
BY REV. E. W. BLYDEN. 

PEOFESSOB OF LANGUAGES, IN LIBEBIA COLLEGE. 

George Sale lias prefixed to the title-page of liis 
able translation of the Koran the following motto 
from Saint Augustin : " Nulla falsa doctrina est, quae 
non aliquid veri permisceat" Recent discussions and 
investigations have brought the subject of Moham- 
medanism prominently before the reading public, and 
the writings of "Weil, and Nokleke, and Muir, and 
Sprenger, and Emanuel Deutsch have taught the 
world that " Mohammedanism is a thing of vitality, 
fraught with a thousand fruitful germs ;" and have 
amply illustrated the principle enunciated by Saint 
Augustin, showing that there are elements both of 
truth and goodness in a system which has had so 
wide-spread an influence upon mankind, embracing 
within the scope of its operations more than one 
hundred millions of the human race ; that the exhi- 
bition of gems of truth, even though " suspended in a 
gallery of counterfeits," has vast power over the 
human heart. 

The object of the present paper is to inquire briefly 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTEEN AFitTCA. 75 

into the condition and influence of Mohammedanism 
among the tribes of "Western Africa. "Whatever may 
be the intellectual inferiority of the negro tribes, (if, 
indeed, such inferiority exists,) it is certain that many 
of these tribes have received the religion of Islam 
without its being forced upon them by the overpower- 
ing arms of victorious invaders. The quiet develop- 
ment and organization of a religious community in the 
heart of Africa has shown that negroes, equally with 
other races, are susceptible of moral and spiritual 
impressions, and of all the sublime possibilities of 
religion. The history of the progress of Islam in this 
country would present the same instances of real and 
eager mental conflict, of minds in honest transition, of 
careful comparison and reflection, that have been 
found in other communities w T here new aspects of 
truth and fresh considerations have been brought 
before them. And we hold that it shows a stronger 
and more healthy intellectual tendency to be induced 
by the persuasion and reason of a man of moral 
nobleness and deep personal convictions to join with 
him in the introduction of beneficial changes, than to 
be compelled to follow the lead of an irresponsible 
character who forces us into measures by his superior 
physical might. 

Different estimates are made of the beneficial effects 
wrought by Islam upon the moral and industrial 
condition of Western Africa. Some are disposed to 
ignore altogether any wdiolesome result, and regard 
the negro Moslems as possessing as a general thing 
only the external appendages of a system which they 
do not understand. But such a conclusion implies a 



76 THE PEOPLE OP AFEICA. 

very superficial acquaintance with the state of things 
among the people. Of course cases are found of 
individuals here and there, of blustering zeal and 
lofty pretensions — qualities which usually exist in 
inverse proportion to the amount of sound knowledge 
possessed — whose views, so far as they can be gath- 
ered, are no more than a mixture of imperfectly 
understood Mohammedanism and fetichism ; but all 
careful and candid observers agree that the influence 
of Islam in Central and West Africa has been, upon 
the whole, of a most salutary character. As an elim- 
inatory and subversive agency, it has displaced or 
unsettled nothing as good as itself. If it has intro- 
duced superstitions, it has expelled superstitions far 
more mischievous and degrading. And it is not 
wonderful if, in succeeding to a debasing heathenism, 
it has in many respects made compromises, so as 
occasionally to present a barren hybrid character. 
But what is surprising is that a religion quietly intro- 
duced from a foreign country, with so few of the 
outward agencies of civilization, should not in process 
of time have been altogether absorbed by the super- 
stitions and manners of barbarous pagans. But not 
only has it not been absorbed, it has introduced large 
modifications in the views and practices even of those 
who have but a vague conception of its teachings. 

Mungo Park, in his travels seventy years ago, 
everywhere remarked the contrast between the pagan 
and Mohammedan tribes of interior Africa. One 
very important improvement noticed by him was 
abstinence from intoxicating drinks. " The beverage of 
the pagan negroes," he says, "is beer and mead, of 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 77 

which tliey often drink to excess ; the Mohammedan 
converts drink nothing bid water." * Thus throughout 
Central Africa there has been established a vast total 
abstinence society ; and such is the influence of this 
society, that where there are Moslem inhabitants, even 
in pagan towns, it is a very rare thing to see a person 
intoxicated. They thus present an almost impene- 
trable barrier to the desolating flood of ardent spirits 
with which traders from Europe and America inundate 
the coast, and of which we have recently had so 
truthful and sadly suggestive an account from a 
missionary at Gaboon. 2 

Wherever the Moslem is found on this coast, 
whether Jalof, Foulah, or Mandingo, he looks upon 
himself as a separate and distinct being from his 
pagan neighbor, and immeasurably his superior in 
intellectual and moral respects. He regards himself 
as one to whom a revelation has been "sent down" 
from heaven. He holds constant intercourse with the 
"Lord of worlds," whose servant he is. In his be- 
half Omnipotence will ever interpose in times of 
danger. Hence he feels that he cannot indulge in the 
frivolities and vices which he considers as by no 
means incompatible with the character and professions 
of the Kafir or unbeliever. Nearly every day his 
Koran reminds him of his high privileges, as compared 
with others, in the following terms : 

Verily those who believe not, among those have received the 
Scriptures, and among the idolaters, shall be cast into the fire 
of hell, to remain therein forever. These are the worst of 

1 Park's Travels, chap. ii. 

2 Mr. Walker, in "Miss. Herald," Feb. 1870. 



78 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

creatures. But they who believe and do good works, these are 
the best of creatures ; their reward with their Lord shall be 
gardens of perpetual abode. 1 

Whoso taketh God and his apostle and the believers for 
friends, they are the party of God, and they shall be victori- 
ous. 2 

But there are no caste distinctions among them. 
Tliey do not look upon the privileges of Islam as 
confined by tribal barriers or limitations. On the 
contrary, the life of their religion is aggressiveness. 
They are constantly making proselytes. As early as 
the commencement of the present century the elastic 
and expansive character of their system was suffi- 
ciently marked to attract the notice of Mr. Park. 
" In the negro country," observes that celebrated 
traveler, " the Mohammedan religion has made, and 
continues to make, considerable progress." " The 
yearning of the native African," says Professor 
Crummel, " for a higher religion, is illustrated by the 
singular fact that Mohammedanism is rapidly and 
peaceably spreading all through the tribes of Western 
Africa, even to the Christian settlements of Liberia." 3 
From Senegal to Lagos, over two thousand miles, 
there is scarcely an important town on the sea-board 
where there are not at least one mosque and active 
representatives of Islam, often side by side with the 
Christian teacher. And as soon as a pagan, however 
obscure or degraded, embraces the Moslem faith, he 
is at once admitted as an equal to their society. 
Slavery and the slave-trade are laudable institutions, 
provided the slaves are Kafirs. The slave who 

1 Sura xciii. 2 Sura v. 

s " Future of Africa," p. 305. 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFEICA. 79 

embraces Islam is free, and no office is closed against 
him on account of servile blood. 

The pagan village possessing a Mussulman teacher 
is always found to be in advance of its neighbors in 
all the elements of civilization. The people pay great 
deference to him. He instructs their children, and 
professes to be the medium between them and heaven, 
either for securing a supply of their necessities, or 
for warding off or removing calamities. It must be 
borne in mind that people in the state of barbarism 
in which the pagan tribes are usually found have no 
proper conceptions of humanity and its capacities. 
The man, therefore, who by unusual strength or cun- 
ning achieves something which no one had achieved 
before him, or of which they do not understand the 
process, is exalted into an extraordinary being, in close 
intimacy with the mysterious powers of nature. The 
Mohammedan, then, who enters a pagan village with 
his books and papers and rosaries, his frequent ablu- 
tions and regularly recurring times of prayers and 
prostrations, in which he appears to be conversing 
with some invisible being, soon acquires a controlling 
influence over the people. He secures their moral 
confidence and respect, and they bring to him all their 
difficulties for solution and all their grievances for 
redress. 

To the African Mussulman, innocent of the intel- 
lectual and scientific progress of other portions of the 
world, the Koran is all-sufficient for his moral, intel- 
lectual, social and political needs. It contains his 
whole religion and a great deal besides. It is to him 
far more than it is to the Turk or Egyptian upon 



80 THE PEOPLE OF AFPJCA. 

whom the light of European civilization has fallen. 
It is his code of laws and his creed, Lis homily and 
his liturgy. He consults it for direction on every 
possible subject ; and his pagan neighbor, seeing such 
veneration paid to the book, conceives even more 
exaggerated notions of its character. The latter looks 
upon it as a great medical repository, teaching the 
art of healing diseases, and as a wonderful storehouse 
of charms and divining power, protecting from 
dangers and foretelling future events. And though 
the prognostications of his Moslem prophet are often 
of the nature of vaticinia post eventum, yet his faith 
remains unshaken in the infallibility of "Alkorana." 
He, therefore, never fails to resort in times of ex- 
tremity to the Mohammedan for direction, and pays 
him for charms against evil. These charms are 
nothing more than passages from the Koran written 
on slips of paper and inclosed in leather cases about 
two or three inches square — after the manner of the 
Jewish phylactery — and worn about the neck or 
wrist. The passages usually written are the last two 
chapters of the Koran, known as the " Chapters of 
Befuge," because they begin, " Say, I take refuge," 
etc. In cases of internal complaints one or both of 
these chapters are written on certain leaves, of which 
a strong decoction is made, and the water administered 
to the patient. "We have seen these two chapters 
written inside a bowl at Alexandria for medicinal 
purposes. 

The Moslems themselves wear constantly about 
their persons certain texts from the Koran called 
Aydt-el-hifz, verses of protection or preservation, which 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 81 

are supposed to keep away every species of misfor- 
tune. The following are in most common use : " God 
is tlie best protector, and lie is the most merciful of 
those who show mercy." (Sura xii. 64.) " And God 
compasseth them behind. Verily it is a glorious 
Koran, written on a preserved tablet," (Sura lxxxv. 20.) 
Sometimes they have the following rhymed couplet : 

Bismi illahi arrahznan, arrahiin 
Auzu billalii min es-Shaytan arraj-ira. 1 

This couplet is also employed whenever they are 
about to commence reading the Koran, as a protection 
against the suggestions of Satan, who is supposed to 
be ever on the alert to whisper erroneous and hurtful 
constructions to the devout reader. 

The Koran is almost always in their hand. It 
seems to be their labor and their relaxation to pore 
over its pages. They love to read and recite it aloud 
for hours together. They seem to possess an enthu- 
siastic appreciation of the rhythmical harmony in 
w T hich it is written. But we cannot attribute its power 
over them altogether to the jingling sounds, word- 
plays, and refrains in which it abounds. These, it is 
true, please the ear and amuse the fancy, especially of 
the uncultivated. But there is something higher, of 
which these rhyming lines are the vehicle ; something 
possessing a deeper power to rouse the imagination, 
mold the feelings, and generate action. Mr. Gibbon 
lias characterized the Koran as a " tissue of incoherent 
rhapsodies." 2 But the author of the "Decline and 

1 In the name of God, the Merciful, t^ie Compassionate, 
. I take refuge in God from Satan, whom we hate. 

2 Chap. 1. 



82 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

Fall " was, as lie liimself acknowledges, ignorant of tlie 
Arabic language, and therefore incompetent to pro- 
nounce an authoritative judgment. Mr. Hallam, in a 
more appreciative vein, speaks of it as " a book 
confessedly written with much elegance and purity," 
containing " just and elevated notions of the divine 
nature and moral duties, the gold ore that pervades 
the dross." 1 The historian of the "Middle Ages," a 
most conscientious investigator, had probably read the 
book in the original — had been charmed with its sense 
as well as its sound. Only they who read it in the 
language of the Arabian author can form anything 
like an accurate idea of its unapproachable place as a 
power among unevangelized communities for molding 
into the most exciting and the most expressive har- 
monies the feelings and imaginations. Says a recent 
able and learned critic : 

The Koran suffers more than any other book we think of by 
a translation, however masterly. The grandeur of the Koran 
consists, its contents apart, in its diction. "We cannot explain 
the peculiarly dignified, impressive, sonorous mixture of Se- 
mitic sound and parlance ; its sesquipedalia verba, with their 
crowd of prefixes and affixes, each of them affirming its own 
position, while consciously bearing upon and influencing the 
central root, which they envelop like a garment of many folds, 
or as chosen courtiers move round the anointed person of the 
King. 2 

The African Moslem forms no exception among the 
adherents of Islam in his appreciation of the sacred 
book. It is studied with as much enthusiam at 

1 "Middle Ages," chap. vi. 

2 Emanuel Deutsch, in the Quarterly Review (London) for Octo- 
ber, 1869. 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 83 

Boporo, Misadu, Medina, Kankan, 1 as at Cairo 
Alexandria, or Bagdad. In travelling in the exterior 
of Liberia we have met ulemas, or learned men, who 
could reproduce from memory any chapter of the 
Koran, with its vowels and dots and other gram- 
matical marks. The boys under their instruction are 
kept at the study of the books for years. First they 
are taught the letters and vowel marks, then they are 
taught to read the text without receiving any insight 
into its meaning. When they can read fluently they 
are taught the meaning of the words, which they 
commit carefully to memory; after which they are 
instructed in what they call the " Jatali," a running- 
commentary on the Koran. While learning the Jatali 
they have side studies assigned them in Arabic 
manuscripts, containing the mystical traditions, the 
acts of Mohammed, the duties of fasting, prayer, alms, 
corporal purification, etc. 2 Young men who intend to 
be enrolled among the ulemas take up history and 
chronology, on which they have some fragmentary 
manuscripts. Before a student is admitted to the 
ranks of the learned he must pass an examination, 
usually lasting seven days, conducted by a Board 
consisting of imams and ulemas. If he is successful, 
he is led around the town on horseback with instru- 
mental music and singing. The following ditty is 
usually sung : 

1 Mohammedan towns, from seventy-five to three hundred miles 
east and north-east of Monrovia. 

2 The student at this stage is called talib, that is, one who seeks 
knowledge. 



84 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

Aliahumma, ya Eabbee 

Salla aia Mohammade, 

Salla Allahu alayhe wa Sallama. 1 

After which the candidate is presented with a sash or 
scarf, usually of fine white cloth of native manufacture, 
which he is thenceforth permitted to wind round his 
cap, with one end hanging down the back, forming 
the Oriental turban. This is a sort of Bachelor of 
Arts diploma. The men who wear turbans have read 
and recited the Koran through many hundred times ; 
and you can refer to no passage which they cannot 
readily find in their apparently confused manuscripts 
of loose leaves and pages, distinguished not by 
numbers, but by catch words at the bottom. Carlyle 
tells us that he has heard of Mohammedan doctors 
who had read the Koran seventy thousand times. 2 
Many such animated and moving concordances to the 
Koran may doubtless be found in Central and West 
Africa. 

But the Koran is not the only book they read. We 
have seen in some of their libraries extensive manu- 
scripts in poetry and prose. One showed us at 
Boporo the Makamat of Hariri, which he read and 
expounded with great readiness, and seemed surprised 
that we had heard of it. And it is not to be doubted 
that some valuable Arabic manuscripts may yet be 
found in the heart of Africa. Dr. Barth tells us that 
he saw in Central Africa a manuscript of those por- 
tions of Aristotle and Plato which had been translated 
into Arabic, and that an Arabic version of Hippo- 

1 O God, niy Lord, bless Mohammed ! God bless him and grant 
him peace ! 

2 "Heroes and Hero Worship," p. 80. 



MOHAMMEDANISM IS WESTERN AFEICA. 85 

crates was extremely valued. The splendid voweled 
edition of the New Testament and Psalms recently 
issued by the American Bible Societ}% and of which, 
through the kindness of friends in New York, we 
have been enabled to distribute a few copies among 
them, is highly prized. 

We have collected in our visits to Mohammedan 
towns a number of interesting manuscripts, original 
and extracted. We will here give two or three speci- 
mens as translated by us. We should be glad if we 
could transfer to these pages the elegant and orna- 
mental chirography of the original. 

The first is from a talismanic paper written at 
Futa Jallon, copies of which are sold to the credulous 
as means of warding off evil from individuals and 
communities, to be employed especially during seasons 
of epidemics. It is as follows : 

In the name of God, ike Merciful, the Compassionate. 
God, bless Mohammed and save him, the seal of the prophets 
and the imam of the apostles, beloved of the "Lord of 
worlds ! " 

After the above is the conveying of health, and the 
completing of salutation and honor. 

Verily, the pestilence is coming upon you, beginning with 
your wealth, such as your cows, and after that upon your- 
selves ; and verily if all of you provide water and bread, name- 
ly, of your men and your women, and your man-servants and 
your maid-servants, and all your youths, they shall not endure 
it. And after that write out the Chapter Opener of the Booh l and 
the Verse of the Throne,* and from " God is light " to " Omni- 

1 Fatihat el-Kitdb, the first chapter of the Koran. 

2 Ayet el-Kursee Sura ii. iv. 256. This verse is repeated by th8 
pious Moslem nearly every time he prays. It is as follows : " God ! 



86 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

scient, " l and from "God created every," the whole Terse to 
"Omnipotent," 2 and the Two Chapters of Refuge; and write, 
" They who when they have done foully and dealt un- 
justly by their own souls shall remember God, and seek for- 
giveness for their sins/ (and who forgives sins but God ?) and 
shall not persevere in what they have done while they know 
it. " 3 And if you do this God shall certainly turn back the 
punishment from you, if God will, by this supplication. . . . 
Because that is the way of escape obligatory on every Moslem 
man and woman. This document is by a man of wealth, who 
traveled, traveling from Euta to Mecca on a pilgrimage, and 
stayed three months, and departed to El-Medina, and settled 
there three years, and returned to Euta. Written by me, Ah- 
mad of Euta to-day. O God, bless Mohammed and save him ! 
The end." 

The next paper professes to be a history of the 
• world. Beginning thousands of years before Adam, 
it gives account of the successive epochs through 
which the earth passed before man was created. But 
we omit all those periods, which might perhaps be of 
interest to the enthusiastic geologist, and come down 
to the account given of the first meeting of Adam and 
Eve. Says our author : 

There is no God but he ; the Living, the Eternal. Nor slumber 
seizeth him, nor sleep ; his, whatsoever is in the heavens and 
whatsoever is in the earth ! Who is he that can intercede with 
him but by his own permission? He knoweth what hath been 
before them, and what shall be after them ; yet nought of his 
knowledge shall they grasp, save what he willeth. His throne 
reacheth over the heavens and the earth, and the upholding of both 
burdeneth him not ; and he is the High, the Great. " — Rodwell's 
Translation. 

1 Sura xxiv. 35. 2 g ura X xiv. 4A. 

3 Sura iii. 129. An item in a list of classes of persons who shall 
be blessed in this world and go to heaven when they die. 



MAHOMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 87 

When Adam first met Eve he was walking upon the sea, and 
he said to her, " Who art thou ? " And she said, " I am the de- 
stroyer of mercies." And Adam said, " Who art thou ?" And 
she said, " I am the destroyer of wealth ; he who finds wealth, 
finds me, and he who does not find wealth does not find me." 
And Adam said, " Who art thou ?" And she said, "I am one 
in whom no faith is to be reposed — lam Eve." And Adam said, 
"I believe thee, O Eve." And Adam took her, and she con- 
ceived and brought forth forty twins, a male and a female at 
each birth, and all died except Seth, who was the father of 
Noah, etc. 

The author then proceeds to trace the descendants 
of Noah, assigning to Shem, Ham, and Japheth the 
countries in which it is commonly understood that 
they respectively settled. 

The next paper is a very elaborate and accurately 
written manuscript, styled " The Book of Psalms which 
God sent down to David." We have been puzzled to 
account for the origin and purpose of this paper. 
Whatever it comes out of, it is certain it does not 
come out of the Psalms of David. It contains, how- 
ever, some excellent moral teachings, written not in 
Koranic language, but on the whole in very good 
Arabic, singularly free from those omissions and mis- 
placements of diacritical points which are so trouble- 
some in some Arabic writings. The arrangement of 
the vowels reveals a thorough acquaintance with the 
niceties of classical Arabic. It was copied for us from 
an old manuscript brought by a scribe from Kankan, 
but he could give no information as to its original 
source. The statement that it is the Psalms is prob- 
ably a mere freak of the compiler or copyist, unless we 
suppose the existence of some Mohammedan pseudo- 



88 



THE PEOPLE OF AFPJCA. 



psalmist in the interior. Moreover, the' word anzala 
used in the manuscript, which we have translated 
" sent down,''' is not the word applied in the Koran to 
David's revelations. The word there used is ata\ 
signifying to commit, to give, etc. The paper is divi- 
ded into six chapters or parts. "We will give, with the 
introductory formula and blessing, the first, fourth, and 
fifth parts. 

In the name of God, etc. God bless our lord Mohammed, 
His prophet, and his family and his wives and his descendants 
and his friends, and keep them safe. 

This is the Book of Psalms which God sent down to David. 
Peace upon him ! 

Paet the Pibst. 

I wonder at him who has heard of Death, how he can rejoice. 

I wonder at him who has heard of the Beckoning, how he 
can gather riches. 

I wonder at him who has heard of the Grave, how he can 
laugh. 

I wonder at him who grieves over the waste of his riches and 
does not grieve over the waste of his life. 

I winder at him who has heard of the future world and its 
bliss and its enduringness, how he can rest when he has never 
sought it. 

I wonder at him who has heard of the present world and its 
transitoriness, how he can be secure about it when he has 
never fled from it. 

I wonder at him who is knowing in the tongue and ignorant 
in the heart. 

I wonder at him who is busy with people's faults and forgets 
his own faults. 

I wonder at him who knows that God considers him in all 
places, how he can rebel against him. 

I wonder at him who has purified himself with water and is 
not pure in his heart. 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 89 

I wonder at him wlio knows that he shall die alone, and en- 
ter the grave alone, and render accoaint alone, how he can seek 
reconciliation with men when he has not sought reconciliation 
with his Lord. 

There is no God but God, in truth ; Mohammed is the En- 
voy of God. God bless him and save him ! 

Part the Fourth, 

Son of Man ! Be not of them who are long of repentance 
and long of hope, l and look for the last day without work, and 
say the say of the servants, and work the work of the hypo- 
crite, and are not satisfied if I give to you, and endure not if 
I keep from you ; who prescribe that which is approved and 
good, and do it not, and forbid that which is disapproved and 
evil, and forego it not, and love the faithful and are not of them, 
and hate the hypocrites and are of them — exacting and not ex- 
act. 

Son of Man ! There is not a new day but the earth ad- 
dresses thee, and thus says she her say unto thee : 

Son of Man ! 

Thou walkest on my back, but thy return is to my belly ; 

Thou laughest on my back, and then thou weepest in my 
belly ; 

Thou art joyful on my back, and then thou art sorrowful in 
my belly ; 

Thou sinnest on my back, and then thou sufferest in my 
belly; 

Thou eatest thy desire on my back, and then the worms eat 
thee in my belly ; 

Son of Man ! 

I am the house of desolation, I am the house of isolation ; 

I am the house of darkness, I am the house of straitness ; 
• I am the house of question, I am the house of terrors ; 

I am the house of serpents, I am the house of scorpions ; 

I am the house of thirst, I am the house of hunger ; 

1 That is, waiting on Providence without attenrpting to "work 
out one's own salvation." 



90 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

I am the house of disgrace, I am the house of fires ; 
Then cultivate me, and burn 1 me not. 

Pakt the Fifth. 

Son of Man ! I did not create you to get greatness by you 
instead of bitterness, nor to get companionship by you instead 
of desolation, nor to borrow by you anything I wanted ; nor 
did I create you to draw to me any profit, or to thrust from me 
any loss, (far be it from Him the Exalted !) But I have created 
you to serve me perpetually, and thank me greatly, and praise 
me morning and evening. 2 And if the first of you and the last 
of you, and the living of yon and the dead of you, and the 
small of you and the great of you, and the male of you and the 
female of you, and the lords of you and the servants of you, 
and the men of you and the beasts of you, if they combine to 
obey me, this will not add to my dominion the weight of a 
grain of dust. "Whoever does good service, does good service 
only for himself ; and whoever is unthankful — why, God is in- 
dependent of the three worlds. " 3 

Son of Man ! 

As thou lendest, shalt thou borrow ; 

As thou workest, shalt thou be recompensed ; 

As thou sowest, shalt thou reap. 

We have been surprised to notice that the manu- 
scripts which we receive generally from Boporo, Mis- 
adu, and Kankan are much better written, and of a 
much more edifying character, than those we have 
seen from the Sambia and that region of country. 
Some of the latter, consisting of childish legends and 
superstitious details, are often curious philological^, 
being mixtures of Arabic and the vernacular dialect. 
It is said also by those who have seen Mohammedan 

1 This is probably a warning against the practice among the 
natives of denuding the earth by burning the wood when pre- 
paring to plant. 

2 Compare Psalm i. 7-14:. 3 Koran xxix. 5. 






MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 91 

worship conducted by tlie Jalofs and Foulahs about 
the Sambia and Senegal, and have witnessed similar 
exercises among the Mandingoes in the region of coun- 
try east of Liberia, that the latter exhibit in their bear- 
ing and proceedings during their religious services 
greater intelligence, order, and regularity than the for- 
mer. 

During a visit of three weeks made to Boporo in the 
Mohammedan month of Eamadhan, (December and 
January, 1868-69.) we had an opportunity of seeing 
the Mandingo Moslem at home. It being the sacred 
month of fasting and religious devotedness, we wit- 
nessed several religious ceremonies and performances. 

As in all Moslem communities, prayer is held five 
times a day. When the hour for prayer approaches, 
a man appointed for the purpose, with a very strong 
and clear voice, goes to the door of the mosque and 
chants the adhan, or call to prayer. This man is 
called the Mueddin. 1 His call is especially solemn 
and interesting in the early hours of the morning. 
We often lay in bed between four and five o'clock lis- 
tening for the cry of the Mueddin. There was a sim- 
ple and solemn melody in the chant at that still hour, 
which after it had ceased still lingered pleasantly on 
the ear, and often despite ourselves drew us out to 
the mosque. The morning adhan, as we heard it at 

1 The first Moslem crier was^ an Ethiopian Negro, Bilal by name, 
" a man of powerful frame and sonorous voice." He was the favor- 
ite attendant of Mohammed. Mr. Irving informs us that on the 
capture of Jerusalem he made the first adhan, " at the Caliph Omar's 
command, and summoned the true believers to prayers with a force 
of lungs that astonished the Jewish inhabitants."— Irving' s Succes- 
sors of Mahomet, P- 100. 



92 THE PEOPLE OE AEEICA. 

Boporo. is as follows: " Alldlm Akbcf.ru, (this is said 
four times.) Ashhadu aula ildlia iW Attaint, (twice). 
Ashhadu anna Mohammada rasoolu ildld, (twice.) Hei- 
ya ala Saldli, (twice.) Heiya ala-l-feldh, (twice.) Sal- 
dtu Icheiru min a-naumi, (twice.) Alldlm Akhara, (twice.) 
La ildha iW Alldlm, (once.) 1 Says Mr. Deutsch : 

Maybe some stray reader remembers a certain thrill on wak- 
ing suddenly in the middle of his first night on Eastern soil 
— waking, as it were, from dream into dream. For there came 
a voice, solitary, sweet, sonorous, floating from on high 
through the moonlight stillness — the voice of the blind Mued- 
din, singing the Ulah, or first call to prayer. . . . The sounds 
went and came — Allahu, Akbar, Attdhu AJcbar — and this reader 
may have a vague notion of Arabic and Koranic sound, one he 
will never forget. 2 

At Boporo and other African towns we have visited 
this call is made three times within the half hour 
immediately preceding worship. Before the third 
call is concluded the people have generally assembled 
in the mosque. Then the^ Imam proceeds with the 
exercises, consisting usually of certain short chapters 
from the Koran and a few prayers, interspersed with 
beautiful chanting of the Moslem watch-word, La Ha- 
ha iW Alldlm, Moliammadu rasoolu 'llahi — There is no 
god, etc. We may remark, by the way, that their 
tunes are not set in the minor key, as is almost always 
the case among the Arabs. Their natures are more 



x o 



i The English is, " God is most great (four times). I testify that 
there is no deity but God (twice). I testify that Mohammed is the 
apostle of God (twice). Come to prayer (twice). Come to security 
(tw T ice). Prayer is better than sleep (twice). God is most great 
(twice). There is no deity but God (once)." 

2 "Quarterly Review," October, 1869. 






MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 93 

joyful. They exult in the diatonic scale of life, and 
leave their oriental co-religionists to wail in the sad 
and mournful chromatics of the desert. 

The Man dingoes are an exceedingly polite and hos- 
pitable people. The restraints of their religion regu- 
late their manners and control their behavior. Both 
in speech and demeanor they appear always solicitous 
to be en regie — anxious to maintain the strictest pro- 
priety — and they succeed in conforming to the natural 
laws of etiquette, of which they seem to have an 
instinctive and agreeable appreciation. In their salu- 
tations they always strive to exceed each other in good 
wishes. The salutation, Salaam aleikum — " Peace be 
with you" — common in oriental Mohammedan coun- 
tries, is used by them very sparingly, and, as a general 
thing, only on leaving the mosque after early morn- 
ing worship. The reply is, Aleikum-e-Salaam, wa 
rahmatu 'llahi wa barakatuhu — "With you be peace, 
and the mercy of God and his blessing." If Salaam 
aleikum is addressed to them by a Kafir or pagan they 
seldom reply ; if by a Christian, the reply is, Salaam 
ala man taba el-huda — " Peace to him who follows the 
right way." 

Those who speak Arabic speak the Koranic or book 
Arabic, preserving the final vowels of the classical 
language — a practice which, in the hurry and exigen- 
cies of business life, has been long discontinued in 
countries where the language is vernacular ; so that in 
Egypt and Syria the current speech is very defective, 
and clipped and corrupted. Mr. Palgrave informs us. 
however, that in North-east Arabia the " grammatical 
dialect " is used in ordinary conversation. " The 



94 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

smallest and raggedest child that toddles about the 
street lisps in the correctest book Arabic that ever De 
Sacy studied or Sibaweeyah professed S' 1 So among 
the Arabic scholars whom one meets in the interior 
of Liberia. In proper names we hear Ibraheema, 
Aleeit, Suleimana, Abdullah^ Daucla, etc. ; in worship 
Allahw, Akbarw, Lailaha, ilFAllahz^ etc. ; and it is 
difficult for the mere tyro in Arabic pronunciation 
either to understand or make himself understood unless 
he constantly bear in mind the final vowels in nouns, 
verbs, and adjectives. A recent number of the 
" Saturday Review," 2 in a notice of General Daumas's 
new work on " Arabic Life and Mussulman Society," 
remarks, " One comfort for the learner will be that the 
oft-pressed distinction between what is termed the 
learned and the vulgar (Arabic) tongue is a mere 
fiction of European growth. It has no foundation in 
native usage." We fear that the theoretical comfort 
which the soothing reviewer attempts to administer to 
the learner of Arabic will be found of no practical avail 
when applied to the intercourse of daily life in Syria 
and Egypt. Only such learned natives as Mr. Bistany 
of Beyroot and Dr. Meshakah of Damascus speak the 
language so as to be understood by one versed only in 
Koranic inflections. And even they generally avoid 
that style as stilted, pedantic, and absurd. Says a 
higher authority : 3 

Les populations Arabes, en general, etant fort ignorantes, 
par leur misere d'abord, et ensuite par l'extreme difficulte de 

i Palgrave's Arabia, vol. i. p. 311. 2 March 26, 1870. 

3 M. Bresnier, Professor of Arabic in the Normal College of Al- 
giers, in his " Gouts Pratique et Theorique de Langue Arabe." 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTEItN AFEICA. 95 

l'etude et de l'application de lenr idionie, le langage usuel des 
diverses regions est soumis a bien des variete's, soit de pronon- 
ciation, soit de denomination des idee's et des choses. 

Among the Moslems of West Africa there are some 
peculiarities in the sounds of the letters. The fourth 
letter of the alphabet is generally pronounced like s ; 
the seventh like the simple k ; the ninth likej in jug ; 
seen and sheen have both the sound of s. The fifteenth 
letter is sounded like I ; the' nineteenth, whose guttural 
sound is so difficult to Western organs, is sounded like 
& / the twenty -first like g hard. 

The introduction of Islam into Central and West 
Africa has been the most important if not the sole 
preservative against the desolations of the slave-trade. 
Mohammedanism furnished a protection to the tribes 
who embraced it by effectually binding them together 
in one strong religious fraternity, and enabling them 
by their united effort to baffle the attempts of powerful 
pagan slave hunters. Enjoying this comparative im- 
munity from sudden hostile incursions, industry was 
stimulated among them ; industry diminished their 
poverty, and as they increased in worldly substance, 
they also increased in desire for knowledge. Gross 
superstition gradually disappeared from among them. 
Receiving a degree of culture from the study of the 
Arabic language, they acquired loftier views, wider 
tastes, and those energetic habits which so pleasingly 
distinguish them from their pagan neighbors. 

Large towns and cities have grown up under 
Mohammedan energy and industry. Dr. Barth was 
surprised to find such towns or cities as Kano and 
Sokoto in the centre of Africa — to discover the focus 



96 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

of a complex and widely ramified commerce, and a 
busy hive of manufacturing industry, in a region which 
most people had believed to be a desert. And there 
are towns and cities nearly as important farther west, 
to which Barth did not penetrate, affording still scope 
to extend the horizon of European knowledge and the 
limits of commercial enterprise. Mr. Benjamin Ander- 
son, the enterprising Liberian traveller, who has 
recently visited Misodu, the capital of the Western 
Mandingoes, about two hundred miles east of Mon- 
rovia, describes that city as the centre of a considerable 
commerce, reaching as far north as Senegal and east 
as far as Sokoto. * 

The African Moslems are also great travellers. 
They seem to travel through the country with greater 
freedom and safety than any other people, on account, 
probably, of their superior intelligence and greater 
usefulness. They are continually crossing the conti- 
nent to Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. We met a few 
weeks ago at Toto-coreh, a town about ten miles east 
of Boporo, a lad who informed us that he was born at 
Mecca while his parents were in that city on pilgrimage. 
We gave him a copy of the New Testament in Arabic, 
which he read with unimpeded fluency, and with the 
Oriental accent and pronunciation. 

The general diffusion of the Arabic language 1 in 

1 The natives love and revere the language. All documents of a 
serious character must be written in that language. Bishop Crow- 
ther of the Niger, in a letter dated October 30, 1869, tells us of his 
visit to King Masaba, a distinguished Mohammedan sovereign, with 
whom he entered into a written agreement with reference to the 
establishment of a Christian mission in his capital. * ' I drew up his 
promise," says the Bishop, "in English, which he handed over to 



MOHAMMEDANISM IN WESTERN AFRICA. 97 

fcliis country tlirougli Mohammedan influence must be 
regarded as a preparatory circumstance of vast im- 
portance for the introduction of the Gospel. It may 
be " the plan of Providence that these many barbarous 
nations of Africa are to be consolidated under one 
aggressive empire of ideas and faith, to prepare the 
way for evaDgelization through the medium of one 
copious, cultivated, expressive tongue, in the place of 
leaving to the Church the difficult task of translating 
and preaching in many barbarous languages, incapable 
of expressing the finer forms of thought." * Already 
some of the vernaculars have been enriched by expres- 
sions from the Arabic for the embodiment of the 
higher processes of thought. They have received 
terms regarding the religion of the one God, and 
respecting a certain state of civilization, such as 
marrying, reading, writing, and the objects having 
relation thereto, sections of time, and phrases of 
salutation and of good breeding ; then the terms 
relating to dress, instruments, and the art of warfare, 
as well as architecture, commerce, etc. 2 

Mohammedanism in this part of the world could 
easily be displaced by Christian influence if Christian 
organizations would enter with vigor into this field. 
Rev. G. W. Gibson, Rector of Trinity Church, Mon- 
rovia, in a letter published in the " Spirit of Missions" 
for April, 1869, says : 

his Maalims to be translated into Arabic" — Christian Observer, Janu- 
ary, 1870. 

1 Prof. Post, of Syrian Prot. College, Beyroot. 

2 See Barth's " Collection of Central African Vocabularies," Part 
I. p. 29. 

5 



98 THE PEOPLE OF AFPJCA. 

Whatever may have been the influence of Mohammedanism 
on races in other parts of the world, I think here, upon the Afri- 
can, results will prove it to be merely preparatory to a Chris- 
tian civilization. In this country, and almost immediately in 
our vicinity, it has recovered millions from paganism, without, 
I think, having such a grasp upon the minds of the masses as 
to lead them obstinately to cling to it in preference to Christi- 
anity, with its superior advantages. The same feelings which 
led them to abandon their former religion for the Moslem will, 
no doubt, lead them still further, and induce them to embrace 
ours when properly presented. I express this opinion the more 
readily from several interviews I have had lately with promi- 
nent parties connected with some of these tribes. 

We are persuaded that with the book knowledge 
they already possess, and their love of letters, many 
of them would become ready converts of a religion 
which brings with it the recommendation of a higher 
culture and a nobler civilization. And, once brought 
within the pale of Christianity, these Mohammedans 
would be a most effective agency for the propagation 
of the Gospel in remote regions, hitherto impervious 
to European zeal and enterprise, and the work of 
African regeneration would proceed with uninterrupted 
course and unexampled rapidity. 



IX. 

REMARKABLE CONDITION OF THE AFRI- 
CAN FIELD. 

[The following Extracts are from a recent paper issued by the Board 
of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church. ] 

S PEE AD out before the Church is a country of con- 
siderable elevation, comparative salubrity, and ex- 
ceeding beauty, diversified with hills and valleys, rich in 
its mineral and agricultural products, irrigated, says 
one traveller, by beautiful streams of water which 
would apparently give life to the dead by their 
exhilarating coolness and purity. 

The tribes of this interior region are larger than 
those upon the coast, and exercise their power and 
influence over corresponding areas of country, an im- 
portant fact in view of Missionary enterprise. They 
are free to a degree from the petty jealousies and 
rivalries which characterize the smaller tribes border- 
ing the Atlantic and prevent free travel and extended 
intercourse. 

Its inhabitants are people of manly presence, full 
of enterprise and intelligence, bent on bettering their 
condition and ready to receive improvement from any 
source, from Mohammedanism on the East, or from 
Christianity on the West. 



100 THE PEOPLE OF AFPJCA. 

And now, to the shame of the Christian Church, 
there is a probability that the Crescent and not the 
Cross, will be planted upon the coast of Western 
Africa. 

" The yearning of the native African," says Rev 
Mr. Crummell, " for a higher religion, is illustrated bj 
the singular fact, that Mohammedanism is rapidly 
and peaceably spreading all through the tribes of 
Western Africa, even to the Christian settlements of 
Liberia." " From Senegal to Lagos, over two thou- 
sand miles," says Professor Blyden, " there is scarcely 
an important settlement on the sea-board, where there 
are not at least one mosque and active representatives 
of Islam, often side by side with the Christian 
teacher." 

The opinion which prevails that the Missionary 
work in behalf of the heathen in Africa may be left 
to the Liberians, is a fatal mistake. They are a poor 
people, and it is with difficulty that they can support 
the institutions of religion among themselves ; and the 
history of Missions in Liberia shows that whenever 
Christians in this country have ceased to send out 
white Missionaries, the work among the heathen has 
come to nothing. 

AN ACCOUNT OE THE NEW FIELD. 

Near the northern end of Liberia there juts out into 
the sea a bold promontory, 1500 feet high, known as 
Cape Mount. Bishop Payne, in his report to the 
Board of Missions, at its session in October, 1870, 
wrote : " A Mission establishment on the top of this 
mountain would have all the advantages of elevation 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 101 

that Bolilen Station Las, eighty miles interior, with the 
further very great blessing of a constant fresh sea- 
breeze." 

There is a highway to the interior from the neigh- 
borhood of Cape Mount. Whatever facts have been 
gleaned regarding the interior tribes, will therefore be 
presented to the reader, beginning at Cape Mount and 
taking the tribes in order as a traveller would come 
upon them passing interiorward ; though it is proba- 
ble that two of the most important tribes, the Pessas 
and the Barlines, can be reached w T ith greatest facility, 
not by way of C ape Mount, but from the St. John's 
River. 

The country immediately around Cape Mount is 
inhabited by 

THE VYE (OR YET) TRIBE. 

"They are the most intelligent," says Bishop Payne, 
" of any on the West Coast. It w r as this people who, 
some fifteen ye&TS ago, invented a syllabic alphabet. 
They hold constant intercourse with the Mandingoes 
and other Mohammedan tribes far in the interior. 
And these intelligent neighbors are fast converting 
them to their false faith." 

The language of the Yejs (or Yves) serves as a 
medium of communication between a number of the 
tribes interior. 

THE CONDOES — NEXT INTERIORWARD. 

Their king, Marmora, exerts great influence over all 
the neighboring tribes, and is thus reported of by an 
English traveller and writer, W. Winwood Beade, Esq. 

Copy of a written statement made by Mr. W. Win- 



102 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

wood Reade, and left with Marmoru, King of the 
Condo country : 

Toto-Koeie, Jan. 22, 1870. 

I desire to state that having paid a visit to Marmoru, King 
of Boporo, resident in this town, he received me hospitably, 
and made me a handsome present when I left him. 

Marmoru is evidently the most powerful king in the regions 
interior of Monrovia. He possesses the road from Musardu 
and other inland states to the sea ; the whole of their trade is 
therefore in his hands. 

It is my opinion that the favor of this king should be culti- 
vated, not only by the Liberian Government, but also by Mis- 
sionaries, travellers, and foreign merchants. 

Marmoru having received some education in Liberia, has 
much larger ^views than most native chiefs. On the present 
occasion, a school having been established under the auspices 
of Professor Blyden, of Liberia College, he has shown a most 
laudable desire to further the education of the children of 
his town ; he is also desirous that Missionaries, and indeed 
settlers generally, should take up their abode with him. 

Toto-Korie, situated about ten miles east of Boporo, appears 
to me to be well adapted for a settlement ; as a trading station, 
it offers remarkable advantages, receiving as it does all the pro- 
duce from the interior ; the soil is suitable for all the require- 
ments of a plantation ; the situation seems healthy ; stores, 
etc. , can be brought up from the settlements in three days ; 
and it is naturally of advantage to those who attempt to exer- 
cise a moral and educational influence over these people, that 
their ruler should be well disposed towards projects of that 
kind, and apparently so well acquainted with the value of 
knowledge. 

(Signed) W. Winwood Beade. 

The school to which Mr. Eeade refers is that es- 
tablished by our Missionary, Rev. Mr. Gibson, and 
taught by a catechist under his charge. It is as yet 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 103 

an inconsiderable enterprise. God grant it may prove 
to be the beginning by our Church of a hearty, reso- 
lute, large-minded effort to do her duty. 

The circumstances of the establishment of this 
school are thus described by Professor Blyden of the 
College in Liberia, and by the Rev. Mr. Gibson * 

Monbovea, Feb. 5, 1870. 
I have just returned from a brief visit to the Boporo regions. 
Mr. W. Winwood Reade, an English traveller, author of Sa- 
vage Africa, accompanied me. Rev. Gr. W. Gibson, of the 
Episcopal Church, anxious to respond to the urgent calls which 
are so loudly made for teachers from that quarter, sent out 
with me one of his candidates for orders, to open a school in 
that country. The King, Marmoru, was not at Boporo when 
we reached that town, but at Toto-Korie, a fortified town ten 
miles on the east. We proceeded thither, where the king re- 
ceived us in fine style, and especially welcomed the teacher. 
Two days after we arrived, on Friday, January 21st, he called 
his principal men together in a large open building in the 
town, and presented in their presence his own and his bro- 
ther's children, to form the nucleus of a school. 

He exhorted the people on the importance of such establish- 
ments among them. He said that he himseh having lived a 
little while at Monrovia when a boy — sent thither by King 
Boatswain, his father — had gained some insight into civiliza- 
tion, which had proved of much advantage to him ; and he 
only regretted that his knowledge- was so exceedingly limited. 
He now felt grateful for the opportunity afforded him of in- 
troducing among the children of the country the advantage of 
book-learning. 

I then read a chapter from the Bible, and prayed, after which 
I took down the names of the boys presented, and gave them 
primers. They seemed delighted. After introducing to them 
the teacher — who made a few remarks — and entreating them to 
be kind to him, I dismissed the assembly by permission of the 



104 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

king. Tliat was a day long to be remembered by all who were 
present. To me it was a great and solemn privilege. Mr. 
Winwood Reade, wlio proclaims himself a freethinker, and 
who lias not ranch faith in Missions as religious agencies, 
could not resist the influence of the occasion. He drew up a 
paper giving his impressions of the country, etc. , which he 
left with the king. I send you a copy herewith. 

Mr. Gibson has assumed a great responsibility in opening a 
school at Toto-Korie. I hope he will be sustained by his 
Board. The Episcopalians are thus first in the field ; but the 
field is large and needy. 

Under date of February 2d, 1870, the Kev. M. Gib- 
son wrote regarding this enterprise : 

Here, then, we have a most flourishing school and station, 
in the centre of this interesting region of country, at the rich 
metropolis and capital towns of Boporo and Toto-Korie, where 
not less than ten different tribes are largely represented. 
There that school may have the patronage and protection of a 
powerful king, ruling over not less, it is supposed, than forty 
or fifty thousand inhabitants -...-. 

A dry, healthy atmosphere, rich country, abounding in 
beautiful landscapes, elevated hills, rich valleys, with charm- 
ing streams of "water murmuring along, present an inviting 
aspect. Here, horses thrive, and cattle abound, while the 
eyes may feast upon the extensive rice and cotton fields, from 
the latter of which are annually manufactured those immense 
quantities of cloths that find their way to the Liberia, Sierra 
Leone, and other markets. Here rich markets are open, sup- 
plied from a. vast area of country. But here, too, is the Mo- 
hammedan mosque, and the pagan shrine. Alas ! 

" Every prospect pleases, and only man is vile." 

August 19th, 1870, he wrote : 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 105 

I received intelligence from our Toto-Korie station three 
days ago. The little school seems to be doing well ; several of 
the pupils are reading books — others spelling. Mr. Tucker 
(the Catechist) is pleased with the field and hopes to be use- 
ful to the people. 

REPORT OF A LIBERIAN EXPLORER. 

The Liberian Government, in 1868, sent out an ex- 
ploring expedition to the interior country. "We give 
such extracts from the journal of Mr. Anderson, the 
explorer, as tend to throw light upon the country and 
the people. 

Of Boporo, the capital of the Condo tribe, he says : 

Boporo is in latitude 7 deg. 45 min. 8 sec. Ks ele- 
vation above the level of the sea is about 560 feet. 
The barometer, in the months of May and June, stands 
from 29. 18 to 29. 40 ; the thermometer ranges from 
78 to 80 Fahrenheit. It is situated on .a small plain 
near the foot of some high hills E. N. E. of it. Very 
high hills rise on every side, with an elevation from 
300 to 650 feet, conrsing along in every direction, 
some continuing three or four miles in length before 
their spurs come down into the valleys or plains. 

The population of Boporo is of a mixed character, 
such as war, commerce, and the domestic slave-trade 
are calculated to produce ; in consequence of which 
there are as many different languages spoken as there 
are tribes ; Yey, Golah, Mambomah, Mandingo, 
Pessy, Boondee, Boozie, and Hurrah languages. The 
Yey language is used for general communication. The 
extent and population of these tribes are very variable 
elements. The population living in the towns may be 
set down at 3,000, but then there are many outlying 



106 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

villages and hamlets ; and considering these as the 
suburbs of Boporo, they undoubtedly raise the 
population to 10,000. 

The Mandingoes possess strong moral influence. 
Scarcely anything is undertaken without consulting 
their priests, whose prayers, blessings, and other rites 
are supposed to give a propitious turn to all the affairs 
of peace and war. They are Mohammedans ; but as 
the ruder tribes do not addict themselves to the 
intellectual habits of the Mandingoes, it has been 
found necessary to adjust that faith to the necessities 
of the case ; and to temper some of the mummeries of 
fetichism with the teachings of Islam. Yet are there 
to be found individuals who do not prostitute their 
faith, and who are more scrupulous and sincere. It is 
believed by many persons that the Arabic learning of 
our Mandingoes, in reading and writing from the 
Koran, is merely mechanical, or a mere matter of 
memory ; but Kaifal took a small Arabic grammar 
given me by Professor Blyden, and showed himself 
thoroughly versed in all the distinctions of person, 
gender, number, etc., in the conjugation of a verb. 
However, all are not equally proficient in this respect. 

They have a mosque at Boporo, where nothing 
enjoined by their religion is omitted. It is attended 
solely by the Mandingoes, none of the other tribes 
visiting it ; not because they are prohibited, for the 
Mandingoes would make proselytes of them all if 
they could. It is sufficient for the "Kaffirs," (un- 
believers,) as they are denominated by the Mandin- 
goes, to buy the amulets, necklaces, and belts con- 
taining transcripts from tlie Koran sewed up in tliem, 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 107 

to be worn around the neck, arms or waist as 
preservatives from the casualties of war, sickness, or 
ill-luck in trade or love. 

The Mandingoes are scrupulously attentive to their 
worship. They regularly attend their services three 
times a day : five o'clock in the morning ; three 
o'clock in the afternoon ; and seven o'clock in the 
evening. 

In these services I was particularly attracted by the 
manner in which they chanted the cardinal article of 
their creed ; and many a morning have I been 
reminded of my own duty, by their solemn musical 
voices reciting : 

La il-la-ha il-al-la-hu Ma-hamma-du ra-sul il-la-hi. 1 

Boporo has a small market, held in the north-east 
suburbs of the town. The bartering is carried on 
solely by women. There is no established currency ; 
the exchange takes place of one commodity for 
another, according to their mutual necessities. It is 
generally attended by one hundred and seventy-five 
to two hundred persons. The articles are palm-oil, 
rice, kaffee-seed, shallots — a small species of onion — 
meat, cotton stripes, tobacco, kola, earthen pots, etc. 
A great many country cloths are made at Boporo, 
every family having a small loom. They would 
economize both time and labor if they would 
employ our large loom, instead of the narrow six-inch 
loom they use. I have no doubt they would do so, 
if any civilized person would interest himself to show 
them. 
* " There is no Deity but God. Mohammed is the Apostle of God." 



108 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

These people are very sensible of the superiority of 
everything that comes from (Dru-kau) Monrovia, and 
they attempt to practice our civilization of themselves. 
The king has a frame house at Totoqueila, with 
a piazza surrounding it, all of native construction. 
He also uses chairs, tables, beds, bedsteads, looking- 
glasses, scented soaps, colognes, etc. He took great 
interest in examining my sextant, and even the 
pictures in my books ; but that which afforded him 
the greatest pleasure was the stereoscope. He en- 
treated me so earnestly to leave it with him, that I 
felt myself bound to gratify his wishes in that respect, 
though I had specially intended it for Musardu. 

He was no less satisfied when I flattered him with 
the prospect of a school for children being established 
at Boporo, telling me that when John B. Jordan 
traded there, he w r as accustomed to get Jordan 
to teach him. The king spells a little, and is some- 
what acquainted with numbers. This is the place for 
the Missionary to be of service ; but it seems that, 
though Mohammed has a small mosque and school at 
Vannswah, almost in the Virginia settlement, the 
Christians have neither church nor school at Boporo. 

Adjoining the Condoes on the east is the 

PESSA TRIBE. 

Their country is three days from Monrovia, north- 
east, say seventy-five miles. They were visited some 
ten or fifteen years ago by Mr. George B. Seymour, a 
most intelligent Liberian colonist, an emigrant from 
Hartford, Connecticut. While engaged in lucrative 
business near the coast, he was so moved by the 



CONDITION OF THE AFEICAN FIELD. 109 

spiritual destitution and misery of tlie heathen tribes 
that he relinquished his business and went and 
settled among the Pessas. 

He started from Bexley, on the St. John's River, 
near the coast, and planted himself at a point about 
one hundred miles interior. He made most pathetic 
appeals to the Christians of this country that they 
would occupy for Christ the field which he had 
opened, but in yain ; and on his death the effort 
came to nought. From his journal the following 
extracts are made : 

" The Cam "Wood (Dye Stuff), Palm Oil, and Ivory 
Districts begin in the Pessa country, and extend into 

the Barline country The people 

make their clothes, iron, tobacco, pipes, bowls, basins, 
pots, bread, meat, oil, salt, and everything necessary 
for sustenance. . . ... . They are kind and 

industrious, hospitable to strangers, but like all 
savages, revengeful to their enemies. At the same 
time they are disposed to tricks of dishonesty, and 
will take advantage of strangers if they can. 

One thing I have observed favorable to the spread 
of the Gospel is, that the tribe are not given up to the 

use of the gree-gree, like the Bassas . 

Their aptness to learn is much in advance of the 
Bassas, and their dialect is peculiarly adapted to the 
articulation of English, and they speak it with a 
clearness that would deceive many an ear. The 
country is of a rolling and mountainous character. 
The climate is cool and salubrious, and considerably 
behind the season at Bassa, say six or eight weeks. 

The rainy season is not so heavy by one-third, as 



110 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

on the coast. The thermometer stands on an average 
at 87 deg. at Bassa all the year ; here I am sure much 
lower, for the same kind of clothing as is in use in 
New England, is very acceptable at this place a good 

part of the year It is my opinion 

that a company of emigrants this distance out, would 
experience little inconvenience from fever, if prudent. 
As to the country beyond us, we can travel to 
any distance in safety, as far as we have learned from 
our people, and they are acquainted with three other 
tribes interior. The native hails with joy the ap- 
proach of a stranger to his country These 

people are very inquisitive, and seem apt to catch an 
idea of anything new as soon as it is presented 
to them. They can be made, by prayerful labor 
a good and great people. They possess no little 
sense of home and country. They seem very desirous 
of cultivating a friendly familiarity with all persons. 
They all expressed, with the greatest warmth, desire 
for education for the children and youth among 
them — in fact this was the general desire wherever 
we travel] ed." The Liberian Professor, E. "W. Ely den, 
writes : 

" Here is a field entirely open to the Gospel. Is 
there no society in America willing to enter it ? . . 
I suppose there is no portion of Africa where the 
people in a purely heathen condition are so access- 
ible, and there is no part of the world where civilized 
settlers would have less trouble." When Seymour 
visited them, in 1857, the headmen sent the following 
petition, and they have made a similar request, in 
^ain, every year since then : 



CONDITION OE THE AFRICAN FIELD. Ill 

Camwood Fokest, Pessa Countey, Aug. 13, 1857. 

Dear Sir : Hearing of your kind wishes and desires for 
our much-injured country, and your expectation to send some 
good American amongst us, we felt it but our duty to say that 
we shall hail the event with gladness. . . . We, 
your humble servants, are willing to do all we can to aid in 
the matter. We are willing to give a tract of land for a 
settlement. We want Americans among us to teach us the 
letters, and above all, the Christian religion. 

Signed by three Kings and Headmen. 

Beyond the Pessa lies the 

BAELINE COUNTRY, 

Regarding which a late explorer, Mr. Spencer An- 
derson, gives the following facts, in addition to those 
which are given in the letter from the Eev. Mr. 
Crummell. Mr. Anderson started from the coast. 
His route lay through the Queah and Pessa countries. 
Eight days' journey, on foot, from Careysburg, 
brought him to Palaka, the capital of Barlines. He 
found the tribe friendly and hospitable, and anxious 
for relations with the Government of Liberia. The 
king was so pleased that he entrusted his son to Mr. 
Anderson, to be brought up in civilization and Chris- 
tianity. 

He reports that the Cam-wood Forest begins in the 
Pessa country, six days' walk from Careysburg, 
north-east by east, and extends, with slight intervals, 
to a great distance beyond Palaka, and that the 
climate is much drier and freer from miasmatic influ- 
ences than on the coast. 

The land of the Barlines has been thrown open to 



112 THE PEOPLE OE AFJ1ICA. 

Missionary effort in a most remarkable way, as the 
following communication from the Rev. Mr. Crum- 
mell shows : 

I write to inform you of a recent opening for Missions, 
which seems to me more important and promising than any 
other we have ever had, and which, I judge, you will decide 
ought to be seized upon without delay. 

At the distance of about one hundred and twenty miles 
interiorward, is the country of the Barline people ; a lofty, 
cool, mountainous country, containing a large and crowded 
population, numerous towns, unusual and superior civil regu- 
lations, and distinguished, withal, by great industrial energies. 
The capital of the country is a large city, surrounded by a 
wall of stone ; here two market days are kept every week, and 
thousands of people, even from remote distances, come with 
both domestic and foreign goods, provisions, and cattle in 
large numbers for sale. Important manufactures are carried 
on in all this region. The people make all their own warlike 
and agricultural instruments : cultivate and cure their own 
tobacco ; weave their own cloth ; prepare their own salt. 

But they are heathen and cannibals, and are imbruted by 
all the grossness and ferocity of deadly superstition. Indeed, 
the section in which they live is a part of that vast interior 
land which I believe to be the darkest place on earth : that 
quarter of the continent where never Missionary or traveller 
has penetrated for adventure, or for the purpose of carrying 
the ' glad tidings. ' Two hundred miles from the coast there 
is a vast range of country, extending from about longitude 
3 deg. to longitude 10 deg. west of Greenwich ; which, without 
doubt, has remained for ages isolate and disconnected from 
the outer world ; where Christian or Mohammedan never 
trod ; and where, save by a few visits from the Cavalla Mis- 
sionaries, and especially by my former pupil, Bev. Mr. Seton, 
heathenism has revelled for ages, undisturbed in its own rank 
and deadly barbarities. 

The government of Liberia has recently sent a Commis- 



, CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 113 

sioner to the kings and headmen of this country. He was re- 
ceived with gladness and distinction. "With the utmost 
willingness they ceded their territory to the Liberian govern- 
ment, and our national flag now floats within the bounds of 
their capital. The chief motive which has led them so cor- 
dially to subject themselves to Liberian authority is the desire 
for an easy access to the coast, and safety and security in 
journeys thereto. The faith of the Liberian government is 
pledged to them, that this security and safety shall be fully 
given to them. Already, block-houses, small forts, are being 
erected at stages of fifteen and twenty miles, for the purpose 
of keeping open roads, and maintaining peace on the road to 
this country. . . . The chiefs and headmen express strong 
desires for teachers, for the instruction of their children ; and 
declare their willingness to receive Missionaries. I have 
had a long conversation with the Commissioner ; and he 
assures me that there is now every facility offered for found- 
ing a mission among this people. He intends, please God, to 
make another visit to Barline early in October, in order to 
convey the chiefs to Monrovia, at the time of the next session 
of the Legislature in December, and he very kindly gave me 
the privilege to join his party for a Missionary visit. 

I repeat that it is my conviction that this is the greatest, 
most promising, most secure opening which our Mission has 
ever had to the interior of Africa. It seems to me desirable 
that a Missionary should be sent there, i. e. , to the capital, 
without delay ; that a good substantial house should be at 
once erected ; that a schoolmaster should accompany the 
Missionary ; that two mature and intelligent and pious fe- 
males, Liberian women, should be connected with the party ; 
that a superior outfit should be furnished, so that the Mission 
should be commenced in the sight of the heathen with 
strength, and not with a show of weakness and littleness ; with 
some of the outward seeming that God's Church comes there 
to do God's work in earnestness. 

East of the Conclo and north of the Barline coun- 
try, adjacent to both, is the country of 



114 THE PEOPLE OF AFEIOA. 



THE DOMAB BONSIES. 



Mr. B. Anderson writes : "Ton no sooner arrive in 
the Bonsie country, than a contrast of cleanliness, 
order, and industry strikes you. That tribe, con- 
tinually represented to us as savage, fierce, and in- 
tractable, at once invites you into its large walled 
towns with all the hospitalities and courtesy that the 
minds of this simple, untutored people can think of. 

" I arrived at Zolu's town on the 8th of July, 1868, 
at four o'clock, p.m. The walls of this town are from 
eighteen to twenty feet high, consisting of clay, and 
very thick. A regular salvo of musketry announced 
my entrance, and quickly a band of music made its 
appearance, consisting of twelve large and small 
ivory horns, and a half dozen drums of various sizes 
and sounds. I was conducted to the market space, 
in the centre of the town, and there welcomed amidst 
the blast and flourish of Bonsie music and the firing 
of muskets. 

" They were astonished and overjoyed that a (Wee- 
gee) an American should come so far to visit them in 
their own country. A thousand strange faces, whom 
I had never before seen, were gazing at me. After 
their curiosity and wonder had been satisfied, they 
gave me spacious and comfortable lodgings, and com- 
menced a series of hospitalities which, from mere 
quantity alone, became oppressive 

" The two great farming staples in the Bonsie 
country are rice and cotton. Sometimes the rice and 
cotton are planted together, but most of the cotton- 
-&rms succeed the rice-farms, yet they are very large ; 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 115 

for they have to clothe a country densely populated, 
where men, women, and children all go clothed, and 
no foreign manufactures, scarcely, reach them. Cot- 
ton-gins would be a blessing to these people ; for the 
manner in which they are obliged to prepare cotton 
for spinning is painful and tedious to the last degree 
of labor. This part of the labor is done by the wo- 
men ; the men do the weaving. The spindle is in the 
hands of every woman, from the princess to the slave. 
The dyeing of cloth is also done by the women, at 
which the Mandingoes are the most expert ; and they 
know how to impart various shades of blue in a 
permanent and beautiful manner. Though they have 
abundance of camwood, I have never seen them use 
it for the purpose of dyeing. The chief colors used 
are blue and yellow ; the latter is extracted from bark. 
Taking into account that these people not only clothe 
themselves, but furnish the vast number of cloths that 
are brought to the coast to be used in the leeward 
trade, it shows what the cotton-producing power of 
the country w T ould become if this primitive, barbarian 
industry were only assisted by some labor-saving 
machinery. 

'•' The Bonsie people have very tractable disposi- 
tions, and are wedded to no particular species of error. 
Fetichism has no strong hold on them. They believe 
in that thing most that manifests the greatest visible 
superiority or power. They are greatly duped by 
the fraud and chicanery of the Mohammedan Man- 
diugo priests. 

" In general physical appearance, the Bonzies are 
well built, generally from five and a-half to six feet 



116 THE PEOPLE OE AFRICA. 

in stature, "with, stoutly developed bodies, of sufficient 
muscular strength to hold a United States musket, 
bayonet fixed, at full arm's length in one hand. They 
are an exceedingly healthy people, and of very clean 
habits. They bathe regularly twice a day, night and 
morning, in warm water, besides the intermediate 
cold water baths they are sure to take at whatever 
creek they happen to cross in their daily walking. 
For cleaning the teeth, they use a brush made of 
ratan, admirably adapted to the purpose.' 
Next are the 

WYMAR BONSIES. 

Dowilnyah is the king of the "Wymar Bonsies. His 
messengers were tall black men, with red and rest- 
less eyes, tattooed faces, filed teeth, huge spears, and 
six feet bows. They also had a reputation wdiich 
remarkably corresponded with their appearance. 

The Bonsie country is densely populated. The 
difference between the Domar and Wymar Bonsie is, 
that the latter marks his face from his temple to his 
chin with an indelible blue stain, while the former 
does not practice tattooing of any kind. This tribe 
extends from the southwest portion of the Pessy 
country to the western border of the Manclingo coun- 
try- 

The women are really the industrious part of the 
population ; for while their lords are wholly devoted 
to pleasure, palavers, and wars, the women are en- 
gaged in numerous domestic duties, and especially in 
spinning cotton. Here, also, as in the Domar country, 
the spindle is in the hands of every woman, from the 
princess to the slave. The women, however, enjoy 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 117 

themselves, particularly on market-clays, which at 
this town takes place every Sunday. • 

This market is seated on the banks of the St. Paul's 
Biver, and is carried on under the shade of large cot- 
ton (hombax) and acacia trees. The commodities of 
exchange are country cloths, cotton stripes, raw cot- 
ton, iron, soap, palm-oil, palm-butter, ground-nuts, 
rice, plaintains, bananas, dried fish, dried meat, peas, 
beans, sweet potatoes, onions (chalots), snuff, tobacco, 
pipes, salt, earthen pots or vessels for holding water 
and for cooking purposes, large quantities of Kola 
slaves, and bullocks. The bullocks are generally 
brought by the Mandingoes to the market. Palm- 
wine is not allowed to be sold in the market. Peace 
and order are secured by persons especially appointed 
for that purpose. After everybody has assembled on 
the ground, these preservers of the peace, with long- 
staves in their hands, go through the market, ordering 
everybody to sit down ; they then admonish the peo- 
ple to carry on their bargains peacefully and without 
contention. This preliminary being gone through 
with, the market is opened. It is generally attended 
by six or seven thousand people. There are several 
large markets held in the Wymar countiy ; the one at 
Comma's town is larger than this. The daily market 
held in the central town is very convenient for making 
small purchases." 

Describing a visit which he made to Ballatah, one 
of the Boozie towns, Anderson writes : " Ballatah is 
like the other Boozie towns, but far better laid out. 
The houses are not crammed so closely together. It 
contains about twenty-five hundred people ; it is seat- 



118 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

ed in a plain, and is commanded by very high and 
abrupt liills on its western side, while the land rolls 
off in gentle undulations toward the east. We were 
carried to some outlying villages north-west of Balla- 
tah, situated at the foot of the same high hills that 
overlook that town. Here they were busy smelting 
iron. The furnaces were built of clay, and of a coni- 
cal shape, from five and a half to six feet high, having 
clay pipes or vents close to the bottom, arranged in 
groups of two and three, for the purpose of draught. 
The charcoal and iron ore arq, put in at the top. At 
the bottom is an opening through which the slag and 
other impurities are withdrawn. 

" Thursday, December 3d, 1868, we started from 
Ballatah. The direction was N.E., and parallel to a 
range of very high hills, called the Vukkah hills. 
These hills are from seven hundred to one thousand 
feet high, and are variously composed of granite, iron 
ore, and a reddish clay, which, from the steep slopes 
near the top, had shelved down in many places. 

" Friday, 4th of December, 1868, we rested at Vuk- 
kah. This town stands at the foot of a range of high 
hills of the same name. It is the last Boozie town, 
and the nearest to the Mandiugo country. These 
hills, called ' Vukkah ' by the Boozies, and ' Fomah ' 
by the Mandingoes, take a definite direction N.E. 
They are the highest range, and form a marked and 
acknowledged boundary between the Boozie and 
Mandingo territories. At the foot of this range are 
seated a number of towns, Boozie and Mandingo." 

THE MANDINGOES. 

The Mandingoes are an Arabic-speaking Moham- 






f 



■-3 

O 

3 



o 

O 

s 

b 




CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 119 

medan tribe, and notable traders, who travel over 
most of the country between their land and the sea, 
and exert a strong influence over all the other tribes. 

They have made considerable advance in education. 
Mr. Anderson mentions the fact that a Mandingo 
priest, with whom he was brought in contact, took an 
Arabic grammar which Mr. Anderson had with him, 
and showed himself thoroughly versed in all the dis- 
tinctions of person, gender, number, etc., in the con- 
jugation of a verb. 

These people, though Mohammedans, deserve our 
highest respect. They have cordially and honestly 
embraced the highest form of religion which was with- 
in their reach. Professor Blyden bears witness that 
the progress of Islam among them presents " the same 
instances of real and eager mental conflict, of minds 
in honest transition, of careful comparison and re- 
flection that have been formed in other communities 
where new aspects of truth and fresh considerations 
have been placed before them. . . . The Koran is 
almost always in their hands. It seems to be their 
labor and their relaxation to pore over its pages. 
They love to read and recite it for hours together. 
. . . They are an exceedingly polite and hospita- 
ble people. The restraints of their religion regulate 
their manners and control their behavior. Both in 
speech and demeanor they appear always solicitous to 
be en regie, and they succeed in conforming to the 
natural laws of etiquette, of which they seem to have 

an instinctive and agreeable appreciation 

" Receiving a degree of culture from the study of the 
Arabic language, they acquired loftier views, wider 



120 CONDITION OF THE AFEICAN FIELD. 

tastes, and those energetic habits which so pleasingly 
distinguish them from their pagan neighbors." 

These Man dingoes were one of the tribes visited by 
Anderson. He writes : 

" At three o'clock, P. M., we were met on the road 
by several Mandingoes, Avho accompanied us to their 
town, Nu-Somadu, or Mohammaclu. The Avails of 
this town are quadrilateral in shape, each side being a 
series of bastions, which at a distance looks like some 
old fortified front. The walls, however, are so thin 
that a four-pounder could demolish them in a very 
little time. 

" We entered the town, and w T ere entertained in a, 
very hospitable manner. A house was given to us, 
small indeed in its dimensions to what we had been 
accustomed to in the Boozie country, but convenient 
and comfortable. Being wearied with the journey. I 
threw myself into a hammock, and commenced 
surveying alterations and arrangements which a 
change in the character of the country had introduced. 
The house was a circular structure of clay, with a 
conical roof made entirely of large canebrake and 
long grass. In looking around, the walls, our eyes 
rested on a saddle, stirrups, bridle, with leather 
leggings, and a tremendous tower gun. 

" Sunday, the 6th of December, we attempted to 
pursue our journey ; but the chief refused to allow us 
to depart before he had demonstrated his good-will 
and hospitality. He killed a heifer, and cooked it 
with onions. We satisfied our appetites, and made 
him an appropriate present. We then departed, 
and arrived at Naalah late in the afternoon. In the 



o 



> 
O 

© 
o 

H 
O 



> 







THE PEOPLE OF AEPJCA. 121 

morning, a trooper was at once dispatched to Musar- 
du, to inform them that the Tibbabue (American) had 
come. In two hours he returned, telling me that the 
Musardu people requested that I would remain at 
Naalah until they had made preparations for my re- 
ception. I immediately sent them word that I had 
been so long coming to see their country that I would 
rather forego any public demonstration than be de- 
layed any further. I was then answered to come on ; 
they would gladly receive me. 

" Accompanied by several Mandingoes from Naalah 
and Mohammadu, we started for Musardu. Our 
interest in the journey was enlivened by the novel 
features of the country. In passing through the 
Boozie country, extensive views were frequently ob- 
structed by a dense vegetation that hemmed in the 
sight on each side of a narrow foot-path. Here the 
peculiar features of the country are visible for miles. 
The towns and villages seated in the plains, people on 
foot and people on horseback can be seen at a great 
distance, and have more the air of light, life, and ac- 
tivity, than many parts of the Boozie country, where 
the sombre gloom of immense forests conceals all 
such things. The large town of Du Quirlelah lay 
on our right, in the bosom of some small hills. It lay 
on our right ; but from our elevated position, it might 
well be said to lie under us. Going on, we descried a 
long, whitish border, raised a little above the height 
of a gentle slope. On drawing near, it proved to be 
the top of the south-western wall of Musardu. We 
fired our muskets, and entered the town. We were 
led up a street, or narrow lane, that brought us into 
6 



122 THE PEOPLE OF AFKICA. 

the square in which the mosque was situated. Here 
were gathered the king, Vomfeedolla, and the principal 
men of the town, to receive us. My Mandingo friends 
from Mohammadu opened the civilities of introduction 
with an elaborate speech ; stating where I had come 
from, and for what I had come ; the power, learning, 
and wealth of the Tibbabues. 

" King Vomfeedolla in appearance has a mild, 
gentle countenance. His features would please those 
who are fond of a straight nose, broad forehead, thin 
lips, large and intelligent eyes, and an oval chin. 
Like all the Mandingoes, his skin is a smooth, glossy 
black. In stature he is rather below the general 
towering height of this tribe. He does not possess 
the fiery energy of his royal Boozie brother, Dowiln- 
yah, who, though many years his senior, far excels 
him in that respect. 

" In all councils Vomfeedolla seems to be entirely 
a listener, and to be directed and influenced by the 
older members of the royal family. He is said to be 
a great warrior ; but the evidences around Musardu 
prove that if he is, he must belong to the unfortunate 
class of that profession. 

" The usual apparel or dress of the Mandingoes 
consists of four pieces — two pieces as a shirt and vest, 
and one large coat or toga worn over all ; one pair of 
Turkish-shaped trowsers coming a little below the 
knees : sandals for the feet, which are sometimes 
beautifully worked ; and a three-cornered cap for the 
head. These articles, made and worn as a Mandingo 
only can make and wear them, leave nothing to be 
desired, either as to taste or utility. This is said so 



LETTEB FROM THE KING OF MTJSADU. 123 

far as the men are concerned. But I must deplore a 
fashion observed by the women, in wrapping up their 
faces and bodies in a manner truly ungraceful, and 
unhealthy, too. 

" Musardu is an exceedingly healthy place ; there 
was not one prostrate, sickly person in the town. 
There is, however, a disease which sometimes attacks 
individuals in a peculiar way ; it is an affection of the 
throat, causing a protuberance almost similar to what 
is called the ' king's evil.' I inquired the cause, and 
they imputed it to something that impregnates the 
water during the height of the dry season, being the 
time when it mostly seizes persons. 

" The atmosphere of Musardu is very dry, and had 
a very favorable effect upon my watches, which were 
declared at Monrovia to be out of order ; but as soon 
as I reached Musardu, every one of them began to 
tick away in a clear and ringing manner. 

" Musardu, the capital of the Western Mandingoes, 
is in latitude 8 deg. 27 min. 11 sec. N., longitude 8 
deg. 24 min. 30 sec. W. ; it is elevated two thousand 
feet above the level of the sea, and is situated amid 
gentle hills and slopes. North and north-^ast two 
very high hills tower above the rest several hundred 
feet. The population is between seven and eight 
thousand." 

On page 129 of this volume, will be found a f ac simile, 
with a translation of a letter from the King of 
Musardu to the President of Liberia, which w T as 
brought by Mr. Anderson on his return from the 
exploration. 



124 THE PEOPLE OF AFKICA. 

FELLATAHS. 

But interesting and important as is the condition 
of the Mandingoes, the Fellatahs or Foulahs are per- 
haps an even more important element in connection 
with any well directed general Missionary effort in 
West Africa. 

Bishop Payne has lately furnished us with the 
following extracts regarding them, from "Notes on 
Northern Africa, the Sahara, and Soudan, by Wm. B. 
Hodgson, late Consul of the United States near the 
Regency of Tunis." 

FOULAHS AND FELLATAHS. 

"Throughout the whole extent of Nigritia, or 
Negro-land, the Foulahs undoubtedly occupy pre- 
eminence. They are found spread over a vast geo- 
graphic region of 28 to 30 deg. in longitude — 1,500 
miles, and 7 to 10 deg. in latitude, or 500 miles. 

"They extend from the Atlantic Ocean, from the 
mouth of the Senegal and Senegambia on the west, to 
the Kingdoms of Bornou and Mandara on the east ; 
from the Desert of Sahara on the north, to the 
mountains of Guinea or Kong on the south. This 
wide superficies contains more then 700,000 square 
miles, which is equal to the fourth, part of Europe, 
and a tenth part of the immense continent of Africa. 
Compared with the United States these parallels of 
longitude would extend from Maine to Missouri. 
"What may be the Foulah population spread over 
this region it is impossible to approximate. But the 
low estimate of three inhabitants to the square mile 
would give a population of two millions. In the wide 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 125 

extent of this vast region, tliey are found under the 
various but similar names of Fellans, Felany, Foulony, 
Fellatah, Fellatiyah, and Peuls. By linguistic analo- 
gies, it was discovered by Adelung, the German phi- 
lologer, that these widely-separated tribes were one 
people. In Senegambia and regions adjacent, the Fou- 
lahs have formed four principal States, called Fouta- 
Toro (from Phut?), Fouta-Bondon, Fouta-Djallon, and 
Fouladon. These States are governed by an elective 
chief called Ahnamy (el-Imam). He may be termed 
the President of an oligarchic council. In other negro 
countries, where these nomadic tribes have introduced 
themselves, they pay tribute to the chiefs of the coun- 
try for the lands which they occupy under a certain 
feudal dependence. In this political relation they 
axe found on all the Atlantic coast (?) from the River 
Sierra Leone, along the Grain, Ivory, and Gold 
Coast, to the Niger. On the Senegal they are found 
among the Serracolets or Sereres, and eastward to 
Massina. At Jennet, Caille discovered that they had 
seized the power of the State, and were defending 
themselves against the Sergoo Tuaricks to the north, 
and the Bambara negroes to the south. On the 
western coast they thus live, mingled with the Jaloofs, 
Mandingoes and Sousons. 1 On the Niger, and in 
Soudan they occupy or have conquered the Kingdoms 
of Yarriba, Nuffee, Haousa and others. 

" The Foulahs are not negroes. They differ es- 
sentially from the negro race in all the characteristics 
which are marked by physical anthropology. They 

1 From their features I should judge that the Vyes around Cape 
Mount must belong to the Foulah family. J. P. 



126 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

may be said to occupy the intermediate space betwixt 
the Arab and Negro. All travellers concur in repre- 
senting them as a distinct race in moral as in physical 
traits. To their color the various terms of bronze, 
copper, reddish, and sometimes white, have been 
applied. They concur also in the report that the 
Foulahs of every region represent themselves to be 
white men. Mungo Park's description of them does 
not vary much from that of all subsequent travellers ; 
and this is substantially repeated in Schon and Crow- 
ther's Journal of the Niger Expedition in 1841. They 
say : ' The Foulahs are chiefly of a tawny complexion, 
with silky hair and pleasing features.' .... 

"The Foulahs are a warlike race of shepherds, and 
within this century they have established a political 
organization ; subjugated a large portion of Soudan ; 
and founded Sokatoo, the capital of their empire. 
Clapperton saj T s that this town, which was built in 
1805 by Danfodio, the prophet, and the first political 
and military chief of the Foulahs, was the most 
populous which he had seen in Central Africa. 

" The Foulahs are rigid Mohammedans, and ac- 
cording to the report of Mollieu, the French travel- 
ler, they are animated by a strong zeal for proselytism. 
They are the Missionaries of Islam among the pagan 
negro tribes. Where they have conquered they have 
forced the adoption of the Koran by the sword ; and 
while pursuing their pastoral occupation, they become 
schoolmasters, maalins — and thus propagate the doc- 
trines and precepts of Islam." 

It even seems probable that the pre-occupation of 
the field by Mohammedanism may prove a help 



CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN FIELD. 127 

rather than a hindrance to the spread of Christi- 
anity. 

Professor Ely den writes : " xlll careful and candid 
observers agree that the influence of Islam in Central 
and "West Africa has been, upon the whole, of a most 
salutary character. As an eliminatory and subversive 
agency, it has displaced or uu settled nothing as good 
as itself. If it has introduced superstitions, it has 
expelled superstitions far more mischievous and 
degrading. And it is not wonderful if, in succeeding 
to a debasing heathenism, it has in many respects 
made compromises, so as occasionally to present a 
barren hybrid character. But what is surprising is 
that a religion quietly introduced from a foreign 
country, with so few of the outward agencies of 
civilization, should not in process of time have been 
altogether absorbed by the superstitions and manners 
of barbarous pagans. But not only has it not been 
absorbed, it has introduced large modifications in the 
views and practices even of those who have but a 
vague conception of its teachings. Mungo Park, in 
his travels sevent}^ years ago, everywhere remarked 
the contrast between the pagan and the Mohammedan 
tribes of interior Africa." 

Mr. Hodgson, whom we have already quoted, writes 
in a similar strain regarding the Mohammedanism 
among the Foulahs : 

" Wherever the Foulah has wandered, the pagan 
idolatry of the negro has been overthrown ; the bar- 
barous fetish and gree-gree have been abandoned : 
anthrophagy and cannibalism have been suppressed, 
and the horrible sacrifice of human beings to propitiate 



128 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

the monstrous gods of the negro barbarian, has been 
supplanted by the worship of the true God. 

" Thus the Foulahs are now exercising a powerful 
influence upon the moral and social condition of 
Central Africa. I do not doubt that they are to be 
the great instruments in the future civilization of 
Africa. 

" In Central Africa, education and religious instruc- 
tion are entirely in the hands of the Mohammedans. 

" 27/6 Koran has introduced its letters where it has 
been adopted, as the Bible from Borne has substituted its 
letters for the alphabets of Europe. Let not the human- 
izing influence of the Koran upon the fetishes, gree- 
grees, and human sacrifices of pagan, homicidal Africa 
be deprecated. It will bring up the civilization of the 
barbarous negro races to a certain degree of civiliza- 
tion, and thus it will concur with Christianity, which 
is now invading Africa from the West, in suppressing 
their inhuman practices. The Arabic Bible is eagerly 
sought. Let therefore the Gospel be disseminated in 
Arabic characters, into whatever languages the pious 
zeal of Missionaries may be able to translate it, since 
Arabic letters have for centuries been introduced into 
Africa and have become familiarized by use. 

" On this subject Sir Powel Buxton says : ' There are 
points in the Mohammedan faith which we may turn 
to account in attempting to introduce better instruc- 
tion. The Mussulmans of the West do not regard 
Christians with the same horror as those of the East ; 
they seem to be favorably impressed by finding that 
we acknowledge much of their own sacred history; 
and with them the names of Abraham and Moses serve 



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LETTEK FEOM THE KING OF MUSADU. 129 

to recommend our holy books. We may make 
common cause with them, also, in Africa, in our 
common abhorrence of the bloody rites and sacrifices 
of the pagans.' " 



x. 

A LETTER FROM THE KING OF MUSADU. 

THE following is a translation with an exact fac- 
simile, printed from photographic relief plates, of a 
letter from the King of Musadu to the President of 
Liberia, written in Arabic, by a young Mandingo, and 
sent from the capital of the country, two hundred 
miles northeast of Monrovia. Mr. Benjamin Anderson 
was the bearer of this letter. The translation is by 
Rev. Dr. Blyden. The original letter is in the pos- 
session of H. M. Schieffelin, New York. 

In the name of God, the merciful, the compassion- 
ate. O God ! bless our lord Mohammad and save him. 
This letter is from towns unto a town — from our town 
to j'our town: the name of our town is Mascidn 1 
(accent on the second syllable) that you may see what 
misfortunes have happened to our countiy, and car- 
nage and slavery and hunger and poverty, and every 
injury, on account of the army. 

The king came forth from his town to our town ; his 
name is Ibrahima Sisi, and his mother's name Shiri 

1 Thus spelled in the MS. ; sometimes it is written Misudu and 
sometimes Musadu. 

6* 



130 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

Sisi, and his father's name Mulul Sisi, and tlie name 
of his town and place of residence is Medina. 1 His fa- 
ther travelled to your country (i. e. Mesurado). At 
that time there was a king in your country ; his name 
was Amara. He gave to this king a wife, and gave to 
all the people of the country plenty of money ; then he 
returned to his town and to his residence Medina (God 
knows all things). God gave him many children and a 
large kingdom, and he fought for God, and God killed 
him and he died in war. He left nine male children. 
The name of the eldest was Abdallah. He fought 
against the infidels (Kafirs) for God, and the enemy 
slew T him, and he left his brother Ibrahima above men- 
tioned. Now Ibrahima is king after them. He enter- 
ed our town on a certain Tuesday. On that day he 
came to us with horses and a numerous, overwhelming 
and impudent army, and entered upon an agreement 
with us and said, " O ye people of the town of Masadu, 
I have come with my army to fight against all those 
around you who are infidels or pagans." And we said, 
" Very w T ell." And the king said, "I see that the pa- 
gans have injured you, and I have seen my father, 
Mulul Sisi, and my brother, Abdallah, that they fought 
for God and the Muslims, and I said I will humble 
them in battle, and there shall be no honor that a child 
should have his origin from the town of his parents.' 5 
And the people of the town said, " Preserve thou our 

1 This is a very extensive Muslim city, surrounded with mud 
walls, about two days' journey east of Misadu. Ibrahima, who pre- 
sides over it, is an enterprising and powerful young Mussulman 
chief, having a large army, consisting of infantry and a cavalry of a 
thousand horse. He is not a very scrupulous Muslim, however, as 
appears from the MS. 



LETTER FROM THE KING OF MUSADU. 131 

honor, do not cause defilement or injury in our town." 
He said, " Very well ; for this army will not injure any- 
thing except what I command it." And the people 
said, " Do what pleases thee, for this town is thine." 
And the King said, " I am going forth from our town 
that I may fight their towns who troubled you, and 
fight the Kafirs around you. Have you not heard 
the saying of the prophet (God bless him), I com- 
mand that you fight men until they say there is no 
God but God. And they said, " Yes, we have 
heard it, and w T e know it." And they said, " Do 
what thou hast said." And when he perceived 
that the people of the town were pleased with 
his speech, he went with his numerous and arro- 
gant army and fought against the people of a town 
called Baghna, and returned to us and entered our 
walled town and our houses. When he perceived 
that the believers had cut off relations between them- 
selves and the pagans, and had destroyed all marriage 
connections between them, and had destroyed friend- 
ship, he said to the leaders of the slaves (the number 
of the leaders of the slaves was nine), " Fight, do not 
let (the enemy) gather one with another until they 
become numerous. Gather yourselves together, and 
go around them and attack them on all sides. Every 
one who attempts to escape, capture for us, keep him 
or kill him. I will sit in the capital of the country, 
Masadu, with numerous boys and the large army. 

And when he (the king) saw fowls in the town (Ma- 
sadu) he took them, or goats or sheep or women, he 
took them for himself. And when he saw cows in the 
possession of any one he said, " Give them to me for 



132 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

tlie sake of religion ; I will give yon slaves." When 
he said, " companion of the faith" he struck them and 
captured them, and he said, " These are the enemies 
of my father." And the people of the town said to 
him, " Desist, there is not in our town any money or 
food. Hunger has taken possession of us, and many 
of our children and slaves have either died or fled to 
our enemies on account of hunger ; and all our rich 
men have become poor, and the poor have become 
numerous. Slaves have taken our female children to 
themselves without compensation." And when the 
king perceived the poverty of the people of the town, 
that they had neither money nor food nor power, he 
returned with his army to his town (Medina). 

The chief of the town (Masadu) then said, " O ye 
people of the town, plant, plant." And when the peo- 
ple of the town planted, they found food and money 
and calves from the pasture, and cows and sheep and 
goats and fowls and an abundance of food. And 
when he (Ibrahima) heard that God had produced for 
the people of the town whom he had abandoned, a 
greater abundance of everything, he returned to us 
with the army, and broke the agreement between us 
and our neighbors, both Muslims and Pagans. And 
wdien they desired the journey to their home and to 
their country, they took from us the best in our town 
and our houses, our goods and our children and our 
wives and our neighbors and our slaves; and they 
said, " When we have removed their slaves and their 
children and their wives, they shall sweat with us." 

And when we heard this saying from them, the 
chief and king of the town, Fanfi Doreh, with his 



LETTER FROM THE KING OF MUSADU. 133 

companions said, " O ye people of the town, do ye 
see the king and his army, how all that he has said 
he does not do it, and he does not desirfe it, except the 
destruction of the towm. When lie came he said, " I 
will fight for the Muslims," but he has had no one to 
fight against except Muslims, and there are no slaves 
except Muslims, and there are no poor except Mus- 
lims. The Kafirs have escaped from the calamities of 
the army. And say the Kafirs to us, " O ye Muslim 
people, help came to you to assist you against us." 
And this was a taunt from the Pagans to the Muslims. 
This was the king's weakness before the Kafirs. And 
w r e were in this condition for seven years. The king 
"was a Muslim and all the people of his army were 
Kafirs except a few. And there w T as not one of the 
people of the town but feared when it was said, " The 
army is on the road." Men fled from their misfor- 
tunes. And all the wealthy people in our town had 
not anything left in their hands except one or tw T o or 
three slaves ; all were poor on account of the army, 
and w r e spurned them (the army) ; and the people 
of the town lost many things, and none but God can 
number them ; and our king, whose name is Fanfi 
Doreh, lost sixty slaves. 

On a certain day we saw the people of the army, 
and they entered a town below T us toward the west, 
and the name of the town was Yusumudu. They 
attacked it until they spoiled the houses and broke 
down the walls and made the farms to suffer; and 
they wasted another town below us on the west ; the 
name of this tow T n is Khullla. And when they re- 
turned to their town, some came to our town (Jilila), 



134 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

and tliey killed in it one hundred and eighty sheep 
and goats, and the people of that town were Muslims. 
For this reason the people of our town refused their 
friendship, reproached them, and did not say " Peace" 
to them. We thought that they were helpers of the 
religion of Mohammad, but they were not helpers of 
Islam, but they destroyed the religion of Islam. 
They were disobedient to God and followed Satan ; 
and therefore I take refuge in God 1 from their 
punishment and their wickedness. May God preserve 
us from them and from the evil of many visits from 
them. They reviled the holy priest of the town, and 
assaulted him, taking his garment from his loins and 
even his cap from his head, and they outraged him 
and dragged him over the ground, and they greatly 
damaged him with their feet ; his name is Salihu 
Shereef. They laid waste and destroyed all the 
treasures of the country. And no one knows the 
number of their evil deeds, and how to describe them, 
but God. 

"When they entered the town they made the greater 
portion of the inhabitants of the town poor and desti- 
tute and vile, even the learned men became poor. If 
it had been known to us what they would do to us 
before it took place, we should certainly have driven 
them away, and they would not have entered. Says 
Hariri, in the Makamot, " We said they are weak and 
we are weak ; they are men and we are men " 2 . . . 
They will not ever enter into our town. Verily God 
is mighty, and verily there is a refuge in God, and 

1 Koranic form for introducing deprecatory invocations. — Trans. 

2 MS. not intelligible here. 



LETTER FROM THE KING OF MUSADU. 135 

every man should seek to serve God in every- 
thing. 

And, during this state of things, we learned on a 
certain day, that there was a messenger on the path 
from Durukoro 1 to us, from a place on the west and 
its environs, and we said, " Praise be to God for that. 
This is our wish and our ardent desire." The army 
took from our town seven men, and selected the best 
of them, and some of their slaves, fifty belonging to 
some and under fifty belonging to others. Seven 
children of our town and the Iman saved themselves 
by flight. We said to the messenger, Ben Anderson, 
say to the king who sent thee to us, as follows : " We 
have seen thy messenger. Our town is not in its 
former condition. The king (Ibrahima) has troubled 
us. The army entered into our town and threw us 
into confusion. Assist us with iron and sword, and 
with everything. Thou knowest that he has been a 
help. Thou lovest us and we love thee, and our 
refuge is in God and in thee, and in thy assistance 
and thy companionship. Give us whatever is in thy 
kingdom. Thy messenger has seen us in affliction on 
account of the war which has come to us. O my 
friend, when thou desirest to travel to us do not 
doubt or be troubled on account of our affairs. Come 
without doubt on account of the love between us and 
thee. 

There is Mohammed, called in our language, " Sab- 

su," 2 when thy messenger reaches to him he reaches 

to us, and when our messenger reaches to him he 

reaches to thee ; and likewise presents from thee to me 

1 Monrovia. 2 Momoru San, King of Boporo. 



136 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

may come through Mohammad, and presents from me 
to thee by the same means. 

Oh, Mohammad Sabsu, 1 I visit thee, but thou 
dost not visit me, for my two children are with thee 
(in thy hand), viz., Nafaribu Mohammad and Maliki, 
thou keepest them for me. 

Oh, Christians and Jews, 2 when ye desire to send 
to us, send to Mohammad Sabsu, and when your 
messages reach him, his servant Kuhi will forward 
them, for he loves us ; and all that you desire from 
our town you will find, if it please God, according to 
your letter. I am king of the army in our town, the 
protector of this large town. This town is the 
mother of the country — the name is Masadu. Suc- 
cess is from God, if it please God. There is no 
strength or power but in God, the exalted, the 
mighty. The word is finished which I wished in this 
letter, and I pray for thee, O friend, that God may 
keep thee from the army and all its mischiefs. Peace 
upon Mohammad and the family of Mohammad. 

The name of the writer of this book is Mohammad 
Barta. I have no learning — I seek learning. I am 
but a boy, but I think that there are learned men 
among us. The name of his father is Ibrahima, and 
of his mother Ayesha. Success is from God. 

i The King of Masadu here addresses the King of Boporo, as Mr. 
Anderson had to pass through his town going and coining. 

2 The Mandingoes regard the Liberians as composed of Chris- 
tians and Jews. 



EXTRACTS 

FEOM N. Y. STATE COLONIZATION JOUENAL, APEIL, 1871. 
ADDKESS BY EEY. A. CRUMMELL, 

DELIVEEED AT MONROVIA, LTBEEIA, IN JULY, 1870. 

WE have received a copy of an address, delivered 
in July last at Monrovia, by the Rev. Alexan- 
der Crummell, a missionary of the Episcopal church 
at Caldwell, Liberia. Mr. Crummell is known to 
many of our readers as the son of a native African, 
brought as a slave from a point within 100 miles of 
Monrovia. The son was born in Brooklyn, educated 
in part at a public school in New York, then at the 
Oneida Institute, near Utica, and was subsequently a 
member of Queens College at the University of Cam- 
bridge, where he received his bachelor's degree. He 
was for some time a professor in Liberia College. 
He is a man eminent for piety and learning and 
ardent devotion to the elevation of his race. "We give 
a few extracts from the address, and did our space 
permit, would be happy to lay it in full before our 
readers. 

One mistake of the people of Liberia, has been neglect of 
our native population. . . . We have been guilty of a 
neglect which has carried with it harm to the aborigines, and 
at the same time visited grievous wrong upon ourselves. 



138 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

No native king has ever had sent to him by the government 
a teacher to educate his children and his people. No sons of 
princes have been brought from our native tribes to be edu- 
cated by the government. . . . No native kings or head 
men have ever been invited to sit as advisers or senators in 
our legislature, to represent their tribes and to show them the 
advantage of civilized and responsible government. 

The native man has not only physical capacity, but he has 
also the habit of labor. He is a worker. . . . The native 
African does work, and that most gladly, up to the level of 
his cultivation and his needs ; not, indeed, I grant you, up to 
the civilized man's needs, for he is a barbarian. He does not 
work for a brick house, for carpets and chairs, for books and 
|3ictures. He has not reached the point of civilization which 
requires such things. Neither did Mr. Cailyle's grandfathers 
when Caesar came to Britain. 

Have faith in the native. You have trusted him, — trusted 
him to nurse your children ; trusted him with your goods in 
trading ; trusted your life in his hands in fragile canoes ; 
trusted yourself unprotected in his sequestered native villages. 
Go now to a further length, trust him as a man fitted to 

"Move and act 
In all the correspondencies of nature." 

Fellow-citizens ! whether willing or unwilling ; whether 
from necessity or at the urgent call of Christian duty, we 
must educate and elevate our native population. Here we 
are a feeble folk in the midst of their multitudes. If we 
neglect them, then they will surely drag us down to their 
rude condition and their deadly superstitions, and our chil- 
dren at some future day will have cast aside the habiliments 
of civilized life, and lost the fine harmonies and the grand 
thoughts of the English tongue. 

In their poverty, the New York State Colonization Society 
desires to uphold the hands of this " feeble folk " in efforts to 
extend civilization and Christianity to the multitudes around 
them. 



THE GIBBEE COUNTRY. 139 

THE GIBBEE COUNTRY, LIBERIA. 

A line of broken mountains near the coast, leaves 
Liberia without navigable streams, while supplying 
ib with inexhaustible water-power. 

The earliest settlement of the colony of Liberia was 
at Cape Messuraclo, near the mouth of the St. Paul's 
river, in 1821. 

Twelve years afterward a second point on the coast 
was selected for a settlement, sixty miles south-east of 
Cape Messurado, at the mouth of the St. John's river, 
in Grand Bassa. 

Neither of the rivers are navigable for more than ten 
or twelve miles from the sea, as they rush down over 
many rapids from the interior. 

Halfway between the two rivers mentioned, a large 
stream empties into the ocean, called the Junk river, 
consisting of two principal branches — the Bed Junk, 
draining the coast for twenty miles to the north-west, 
and the Farmington river, breaking through the 
mountain chain from the east. As one sails alon^ the 
coast the mountain chain no where seems so bold 
and near at hand as at the Junk river. 

The Bassa native tribe inhabits the coast from the 
Junk river for nearly 100 miles south-east, extending 
70 miles to the interior. 

We received last summer from Bev. T. E. Dillon, a 
Presbyterian missionary at Marshall, near the mouth 
of the Junk river, an account of a journey he had just 
made to explore its course, and present our readers 
with the following extracts : 



140 THE PEOPLE OE AFRICA. 

Marshall, Liberia, W. A., Aug. 1, 1870. 

Last March I visited the Gibbee, a populous country east of 
Marshall, on the Farmington river, and about 100 miles from 
its mouth. A direct line, however, would greatly lessen the 
distance, as the road usually travelled follows the course of the 
river, which winds about, first in a zig-zag, and then in a cur- 
vilinear manner. Five rapids, situated from 12 to 20 miles 
apart, prevent ascending this river in a single canoe, but the 
use of four canoes, one between each pair of rapids, and a 
short walk around each fall, would obviate the difficulty of 
ascending it. 

The Gibbee people are a branch of the Bassa family, which 
spreads over one-half of the republic on the coast, and in the 
interior beyond our limits. After leaving Mount Olivet, a 
missionary station of the M. E. church, about 15 miles from 
the sea, I reached the Gibbee, after four full days' walk 
through an uninhabited country, with all varieties of soil and 
numerous streams of the purest water. (March is at the close 
of a long dry season.) 

I regret my inability to give a complete and connected state- 
ment of all I saw and heard before, and especially after reach- 
ing the Gibbee country. 

I preached while out there as often as opportunity offered. 
Sometimes, for want of room, I have stood out, on a beauti- 
ful moonlight night, and preached to a whole town consisting 
of five hundred souls, who crowded around me, some, it may 
be, to be taught the truth, but the most from curiosity, for it 
was a novelty to all, many of whom had never before seen an 
American. 

I usually spent a portion of every day instructing them from 
a small primer I had taken along for the purpose, and in re- 
hearsing simple stories from the Bible, and was agreeably sur- 
prised to witness the remarkable aptitude in learning they 
evinced — some quite learning the alphabet. 

There are some curiosities in this country, viz. : a large 
stone cavern and some rocks, chiefly remarkable for their form 
and size 3 which lie at the basis of the Bee, the highest peak of 



THE GIBBEE COUNTRY. 141 

a chain of mountains and hills which describe a circle of 20 
miles in diameter, enclosing a basin of the very richest soil, 
ever receiving increased richness from the surrounding moun- 
tain sides. This peak, the Bee, is seen from Cape Messura- 
do, from Careysburgh, from Marshall, and from the sea, be- 
ing over 3,000 feet high. 

When on the western side of the top of the mountain we 
have an open level plot, from which is afforded a panoramic 
view of all the country toward the sea. I ascended the moun- 
tain April 5th, about 3 p. m. , and as I beheld at one view, 
Junk mountain to the south-west, Careysburgh and Monrovia 
to the west, the Boporo mountains toward the north, dozens 
of hills and cones, an immense wilderness and a score or more 
of native villages lying below the mountains, I thought surely 
it was the most sublime prospect that ever greeted my eyes ! 
The mountain is covered with large trees, such as are common 
to this country ; only a few of them camwood trees, but the 
best of building timbers can be procured here, and clay for 
brick-making. The stones are chiefly flint, in all stages of de- 
composition. There is some iron ore, but I saw no signs of 
gold. The elevation of this ridge and the tremendous preci- 
pice that bounds it on the west, prevent access by invaders, 
and the inhabitants of the valley boast that they have never 
been whipped. 

The east side is less broken, and here are to be seen the 
greatest specimens of large rocks, which seem, by some vio- 
lent cause, to have been hurled from the top and sides of the 
mountain. One of these is a large rocking stone, resting on 
a very narrow base, apparently almost on nothing, fully 60 
feet long and 20 feet high, and looking very dangerous. On 
the south-eastern side of the mountain peak, about 40 feet 
above its base, there is a large cavern, formed chiefly by three 
huge rocks. It is reached through a stony pathway, rocks on 
either hand towering far overhead. It is entered through an 
aperture seven-and-a-half feet by four feet, and consists of two 
apartments, the first 52 feet, and the second apartment 48 feet 
in length, by ten feet in width. The rocks are calcareous 



142 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

Hint, porous, and usually full of water ; and being exceed- 
ingly brittle, I considered it dangerous to go under them, as 
it is possible for them to fall in when well saturated with 
water. On a clear day the cavern has sufficient light for all 
ordinary purposes. It is occupied by vampires in abundance, 
and these rocks are the god of the Gibbee people. They 
make continual offerings of old broken pipes, bowls, tobacco, 
etc., and through it professedly they achieve all their victo- 
ries over their enemies in war, etc. To it they offer their de- 
votions or prayers, and seldom a day passes that these rocks 
are not visited by some one of the natives, either to make sa- 
crifices, or to pray to this rock. 

I am persuaded that much good could be done among this 
people, by introducing schools among them. They are nu- 
merous, and are willing to be taught. I tried, but in vain, to 
enumerate the children. They are not, indeed, innumerable, 
but they are very numerous. 

Nawvlee's Town is the capital, and contains nearly one 
hundred houses and five hundred people, in addition to a 
great number of half towns scattered over the country for five 
or six miles from the capital. There are several towns in Gib- 
bee nearly as populous as Nawvlee's. Towns in that region 
are usually large, and contain more children than towns near 
our settlements. Here in Liberia the boys are put out among 
the Liberian settlers, to be employed in labor or to learn to 
speak English. But in the Gibbee country it is not unusual 
to see, of a moonlight evening, from 75 to 100 playing in the 
open yards or in the streets of the town. 

A missionary sent there should be allowed a competent out- 
fit of necessaries, to avoid the necessity of visiting or sending 
to the settlements often. He should also be supplied with 
two or three good families, themselves as missionaries, teach- 
ers, helpers, etc. 

In another letter, dated December 30th, 1870, just 
received, Mr. Dillon writes : 

When in the Gibbee country, I was within twenty miles of 



DONATIONS FOR SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS. .143 

George L. Seymour's mission of 1859, among the Pessy peo- 
ple. l The station was called Paynville, the native name being 
Darpeh. 

The king of that country sends down every year urging the 
government to send them a missionary, and to give them a 
school. 

I would willingly go out there, if the Board would allow, 
and give me suitable help. I would desire a few persons, as 
teachers, to accompany me and co-operate with me in the 
work. I think I would be willing to spend my life among 
them. 






DONATIONS FOR SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS. 

There are whole tribes of native Pagans in Liberia, 
who are included in the half million often spoken of 
as constituting a part of that republic who to this very 
day never had a school-house opened for their child- 
ren. Among them polygamy prevails. Slaves are held 
and bought and sold; even cannibalism is practiced 
in some instances. Fifty years have passed since 
Liberia was founded, and the cry of the natives for 
schools has been coming over the water, but as to most 
of the tribes it has been in vain. 

Convinced that without schools Liberia and its 
surrounding popidation will not be elevated, this 
Society desires to answer the calls so loud and 
urgent. One hundred and hcenhj-five dollars pledged 
by a Sabbath-school, or an individual, will keep one 
school for a year, in which, from fifteen to twenty 
children can be taught to read the word of God. 



^o* 



1 Mr. Seymour was a Presbyterian missionary. While exploring 
further interiorward, he was wounded, and died from the effects, 
<ind his mission was thus ended. 



144 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

Truth will thus help to cast out diabolical supersti- 
tions, and reform evil institutions. 

Pledges for support of a school are earnestly 
solicited. 



SCHOOLS IN AFEICA. 

Many letters from Ashmun, the preserver of Libe- 
ria, were laden with appeals for schools and education 
for the native tribes in Liberia forty years ago. Were 
he alive, and again looking out from Cape Messuradu, 
the same appeals would come with increasing earnest- 
ness. 

Two years ago the New York State Colonization 
Society began an effort to supply a part of the great 
field. The results have fallen far below their wishes, 
and Africa's needs. Something has been secured. 
Fourteen schools have been set in operation ; a large 
supply of school-books and needful school apparatus 
sent out and distributed ; many teachers were found 
to be ready, well recommended, to teach primary 
schools. 

By the generous liberality of a friend in Great 
Britain, means have been furnished to commence a 
Manual Labor Institute, for the training of a higher 
class of teachers, and especially looking to lay bold 
of that most interesting element of native population, 
which, by commerce, brings the interior Mohamme- 
dan population into regular communication with 
Liberia. Measures are now under way to have such 
a school opened on the path from Monrovia to Bo- 
poro and Misadu. 

We append extracts from two or three reports re- 



SCHOOLS IN AFRICA. 145 

cently received from teachers along eighty miles of 
the coast. 

Each of their schools is supported for a year for 
$125. One of these teachers had fourteen native boys 
hying in her family, and instructed for this mere 
pittance. 

Thirty other schools could at once be opened under 
Christian teachers, at no greater expense. 

A native prince now in this city, from the large 
Bassa tribe in Liberia, stated in Dr. Garnet's church 
that not a school-house had been given to his tribe by 
the people of Liberia in forty years. He asks that 
his people may have light. 

Mrs. Emma A. Diggs, in her report of the school at 
Kobertsport, in August, states the roll at thirty-three 
scholars ; eighteen male and fifteen female. 

On Sabbath these chiefly attended a Sunday-school 
taught by Rev. Mr. MacMillan, a candidate for the 
ministry, and Mrs. Diggs gathered a few around the 
water-side. She asks for two or three catechisms. 
Three persons had recently joined the church. 

Mrs. Henry Tyler, in her report at the close of the 
fourth quarter, Dec. 27th, says : 

The number of different scholars during the year has 
been fifty-three ; the average attendance has been twenty- 
three. The scholars have made good progress in the different 
studies, especially in spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. 

Mrs. Z. A. King, who teaches in a native village 
called Gozimbostown, reports for the two quarters 
from July to December, 1870, eight males and two 
females, who averaged an attendance of fifty-five days 
each, out of sixty daj'S that school was open ; three 

7 



146 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

attended every day ; seven fifty days eacli. The 
other lads came in the last three weeks, and attended 
regularly. 

Mrs. King writes : 

These children have improved very much, being natives. 
Some of them have spelled through, and read through, 
Wilson's Spelling-book, and are also nearly through the 
smaller Catechism. I had a great deal of trouble, at first, to 
get them to understand or give attention, but since they have 
begun to understand, we are encouraged to expect more will 
be brought into the school in the ensuing year. 

Mrs. H. A. Stephen, who taught the Macedonia 
school in a native village of Day people and Congoes, 
several miles north of Clay Ashland, reports, Dec. 31, 
1870, fourteen males and seven females in her school. 

She writes : 

I have fourteen of these children living with me in my 
family, and they are all very anxious to learn, indeed. They 
spell and read well for the time that they have been with me. 
I believe the blessing of God has been with us, though we 
have had a great deal of trouble this year. Since these 
children are doing so well at learning their books, the natives 
are very anxious for this school to be continued. 

I am pleased to inform you that I have a very fine 
Sabbath-school. There are a goodly number of adult natives 
attending it sometimes, and also there are several families of 
Congoes, who have moved out to my station ; they and their 
children attend the Sabbath-school. 

Mrs. E. K. C. Britton, teacher at Harrisburg, re- 
ports, under date of November 25 : 

Sir : I forward this report of the first and second quarters 
of the school I have kept. The whole number of scholars 
was fifteen. Of them thirteen were boys — two were girls. 
All but two were children of colonists. All of these scholars but 



JACOB W. VONBRUNN. 147 

two commenced with the alphabet. Considering the disad- 
vantage of not having suitable books, the advancement of the 
scholars was satisfactory. 



JACOB W. VONBRUNN. 

The arrival of Mr. Vonbrunn by the ship Golconda 
realizes to us one trophy of missionary labor in Africa. 

Mr. Vonbrunn is the son of a subordinate king of 
the Grand Bassa people, a native tribe extending along 
the coast of Liberia, from near Monrovia to Grand 
Colo, 100 miles, and into the interior 90 or- 100 miles. 
•When a lad twelve 3-ears of age — the American col- 
onists then occupying only one point on the coast of 
Africa, at Cape Messurado — Vonbrunn was sent to the 
Cape by his father, from St. John's River, Grand 
Bassa, to learn "American fash," and to get a smat- 
tering of colloquial English, and some ideas of civili- 
zation. This was about 1830. There a missionary, 
who bad gone to Africa in response to an earnest 
appeal of Governor Ashmun for teachers for the 
colonists and natives, saw the lad, and took lrini for 
education. 

When the mission became so weakened by death 
and sickness as to be abandoned, Mr. Kisseling, with 
consent of the father, took the lad with him to Sierra 
Leone, where, after a careful training, he was baptized, 
and became a teacher in the schools for re-captives. 

In one of these village schools, in a quiet mountain 
valley, the writer of this article first saw Vonbrunn in 
1840. He was in charge of 400 scholars, of whom 270 
Were present. The Lancasterian system was used, 



148 THE PEOPLE OF AFKICA. 

and the smaller scholars were taught by scholars of 
more advanced classes. 

In 1854, Vonbrunn had returned to his own native 
town and tribe, in Bassa Liberia, and was employed 
by Rev. Mr. Clark, a Baptist missionary, as assistant 
teacher. 

His return to his father and tribe had been an oc- 
casion of greatest joy to them ; and on the death of 
the father, the people demanded of him to accept the 
succession, and become their king. This he resolutely 
refused ; and finally, to satisfy his scruples, they left 
their old devil ground, and built a new town near the 
mission, in which he acted as a magistrate, commis- 
sioned by the Liberian government. Were he willing 
he could now hold the succession to the principal 
kingship of the whole tribe, but he will not. 

During 1869 and 1870, commissioned to preach as 
a Baptist missionary, he visited many villages and 
large towns up the St. John's river, in little Bassa, 
in the Gibbee country, and east of the Coast Range 
of mountains, and found a universal willingness to hear. 

He expressed a desire to visit America in a letter 
received October, 1870, and arrived in New York by 
the ship Golconda, February 24th. His object was 
twofold ; first to enlarge his ow r n mental powers, by 
the sight of our Christian civilization, institutions, and 
material prosperity ; and secondly, to bring the w T ants 
of his nation before our Christian people, and elicit 
more aid in the way of schools. He justly remarks 
that the Liberians are as yet unable to support their 
own churches or schools, and therefore quite unable 
to help his people. 



EXPLORATIONS EAST OF LIBERIA. 149 

Some opposition was made by his people to his 
coming away, but when assured that he might bring 
them teachers, they yielded, and are now awaiting 
his return with hope and anxiety. Shall he carry 
back assurances of schools and Bibles ? 



EXPLORATIONS EAST OF LIBERIA. 

Stimulated by the liberal aid of one of our retired 
New York merchants, an active member of the New 
York State Colonization Society, who had offered to 
defray the expenses of an exploration toward the 
river Niger, Benjamin Anderson, a Liberian, left 
Monrovia February 14, 1868, and overcoming all the 
schemes of opponents, whether of civilized or uncivi- 
lized, Mohammedan or Pagan traders, bravely 
persevered, till after nine-and-a-half months of vexa- 
tious detentions, on Monday, Dec. 27, 1868, he had 
penetrated to Musadu, a large walled town of the Man- 
dingoes. 

He had passed through five tribes — the Day, the 
Goulah, the Vey, the Condo, or Boson people, the 
Domar Bonsie, and the Wymar Bonsie tribes. As 
his estimates and observations show, his journey ter- 
minated about 200 miles in a direction nearly north- 
east of Monrovia. 

The accessibility of the interior plateau, and the 
existence of large tribes of industrious native people, 
ready and anxious to open commerce, being thus 
demonstrated, on the return of Anderson, in March, 
and the publication of his journal to Musadu, interest 



150 THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. 

was awakened, and early in 1870 the Episcopal mis- 
sionary at Monrovia, planted a mission school at 
Totoquella, the new capital of the Boson or Condo 
people, CO miles north of Monrovia. President Roye 
had scarcely been inaugurated, before he resolved to 
explore a more direct road to Musadu ; and in May, 
1870, Wm. S. Anderson, one of the largest sugar- 
makers of Liberia, was commissioned for this purpose. 
He was supplied with goods for presents to the chiefs 
and to meet expenses, furnished with forty men well 
armed as a guard, and authorized to enter into trea- 
ties of amity and commerce. His course was on the 
south-east side of the St. Paul's river, leading him 
through the Bassa, Pessy and Barline tribes, entirely 
distinct in language and nationality from those on 
the north-western side of the river. This journey 
was quite a success. The show of strength and 
liberal presents to the chiefs, removed all obstacles, 
and in eight days Mr. Anderson had penetrated 
within fifty miles of Musadu. 

He was heartily welcomed by tribes who had be- 
fore been represented as cannibals. He found them 
dwelling in large walled cities, busily engaged in 
various industrial pursuits, the fields finely cultivated 
with growing crops of rice, cotton, corn, and various 
vegetables. Cotton robes and iron were manufactured 
extensively, and the people were eager for commercial 
relations with Liberia. On his return, the presents 
brought to President Roye from the native chiefs — 
ivory, cotton robes, bullocks, etc., convinced all the 
Liberians that a large and lucrative field of commerce, 
tight at their door, had been too long neglected. 



HELP FOR AN EDUCATION. 151 

"We are glad to learn that by order of President 
Roye, block-houses are, at the present time, being 
built along a direct path to the Pessy and Barline 
country, soon, perhaps, to reach Musadu and the 
Niger river, and open an inviting field for missionary 
labor. 



HELP EOH AN EDUCATION. 



G , Lxbekia, August 21, 1871. 

Rev. J. B. Pinney, Secretary of the N. Y. State Colonization Society. 

Sir : I beg you will excuse the liberty I am taking 
to write to you, but I am encouraged to apply to you 
in the hope that you will kindly assist me in the 
effort I am making to acquire an education. I am 
a member of the Methodist church, and have 
endeavored to live a consistent Christian life. I 
applied to President Roberts in the early part of the 
year, to receive me in the preparatory department as 
a beneficiary, but he informed me that he had 
no funds then with which he could aid me. I am a 
poor boy, and feel willing to make any reasonable 
sacrifice to improve my education, that I may be 
useful in this country. I came to Liberia, a child, 
with my parents, fifteen years ago. They both soon 
died, and left me an orphan, and I have had a hard 
time, with scarcely any opportunity afforded me to 
improve my mind ; but I neglected no means that I 
could avail myself of, and now feel more and more 
the want of a better education ; and if the N. Y. State 
Colonization Society will aid me, I pledge myself to 



152 THE PEOPLE OF AFEICA. 

the gospel ministry, and will do all in my power 
to evangelize the heathen. 



A NATIVE TBAVELLEE. 

On Saturday, the 27th ultimo, there arrived at the 
residence of Professor Blyden a young Mandingo 
Mussulman, of the name of Lusannu, from Tenkereh, 
a populous city lying to the east of Musadu. He 
was introduced to the professor by Faniba Sissi, 
a Moslem, resident of Vonzowah. 

Lusannu, having a roving disposition, left his 
father when a boy of ten years of age, and followed 
trading caravans or military expeditions. He is now 
about twenty-three years old. In his wanderings he 
visited Bamako and Yamina, on the Niger. He knows 
also Timbo, Jenneh, Hamd-Allahi, and Tangrera. 
He has resided at Falabar and Finamisaya. He has 
been at the gold-diggings at Buleh. He had not 
been so far as Sokoto or Kane, but had frequently 
met traders from those places. From Timbuctoo 
traders carry rock salt to his native city for sale. 
Asses, horses, cows, sheep, etc., are numerous. Tenke- 
reh is about a week's journey to the eastward of 
Musadu, but the people go towards the big water to 
trade, which Lusannu describes as not far from 
Tenkereh, no doubt the head waters of the Niger. It 
is almost certain that the sources of the Niger are 
within a few days' journey from »Cape Palmas. 

Lusannu had no books or manuscripts with him, 
though his father is one of the learned Mohammedans. 
Having spent all his days in itinerant and warlike 



A NATIVE TRAVELLED.- H3 

employments, he had not made much proficiency in 
letters. He recited, however, from memory, with 
great accuracy and fluency, several chapters from the 
Koran in Arabic. He describes Tenkereh as five 
times the size of Monrovia. — Liberia Register. 



From tlie Liberia Herald. 

We are indebted to Mr. Dennis for calling the at- 
tention of oar people to the " amicable and politic 
discretion which should influence - their conduct in 
their intercourse with their native brethren." 

It is the policy of the present Administration, which, 
to the extent of its ability, it has been striving to 
carry out — to be " energetic in its demonstrations of 
sympathy towards the aborigines." To treat our 
aborigines as colonists in other parts of the world 
have treated the natives'- of the country in which they 
settled, would be extremely foolish as well as impo- 
litic. 

We are one people. There is not the superiority 
of one class to another, of one caste to another, of 
one race to another, which we see in India, New Zea- 
land, and North America. If there is any advantage 
here, it is on the side of the native. We may have 
the accident of civilization — but he has the essentials 
of an uncorrupted and untrammelled manhood. 

The position which Mr. Dennis and others have 
taken lately in relation to a proper policy towards the 
aborigines, illustrates one valuable result of the dis- 
cussions which have been going on for the last three 
\>r four years on the subject of native incorporation, 
finding its most eloquent expression in the oration 

7* 



154: THE PEOPLE OF AEEICA. 

delivered by Professor Crummell, on tlie 26tli of July 
last. And in proportion as a truer conception of oui 
relations to tlie tribes around us becomes familiar, a 
more liberal and comprehensive sentiment will be 
generated, and the republic will advance with surer 
and more rapid steps on the road to prosperity and, 
independence. 



THE NEW YORK STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 

The objects and aims of the New York State Coloni- 
zation Society are given in its Constitution, as follows : 

" Art. 2. The objects of this Society shall be to col- 
onize, with their own consent, people of color of tlie 
United States on the coast of Africa, and through them 
to civilize and Christianize the African tribes ; and, also, 
generally to improve .the condition of the colored popu- 
lation of our country." 

The charter granted by the Legislature of New York 
states them as follows : 

" Sec. 2. The particular business and objects of the 
said Society are to provide the ways and means, and 
to manage, appropriate and apply the same, to 
colonize, with their own consent, people of color of 
the United States on the coast of Africa, and through 
them to civilize the African tribes ; and, also, generally 
to improve the condition of the colored population of 
our country, collecting, receiving, appropriating or 
investing funds for purposes of education in its various 
branches, among people of color of our country, here- 
tofore colonized, or hereafter to be colonized in Africa, 
and by other measures conducive to the objects of 
African colonization." 



NEW YOBK STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 155 

These have been liacl in view for the last thirty 
years. It has never confined its operations simply 
to removing people of color from this country and 
placing them in Africa to prepare themselves homes in 
a tropical forest, but has endeavored to aid them when 
placed there to elevate themselves, and by there ex- 
ample and efforts to promote Christian civilization 
among their barbarian neighbors. Most of the emi- 
grants from this country have gone to Liberia very 
poor and very ignorant. A very large proportion were 
born and bred in slavery. They were in childhood 
deprived of opportunities to learn the rudiments of 
common education, and on their arrival at their new 
home subjected to a severe acclimating process, and 
were unable to do much more than prepare homes 
for their families. With a large majority of the 
people this still remains the case. Surrounded by, 
and intermingled with an uncivilized people, they are 
too poor to maintain schools even for their own chil- 
dren. 

In the autumn of 1868 our Corresponding Secretary 
made an exploration of the whole of Liberia, and 
found in actual operation less than thirty schools to 
supply a civilized population of fifteen thousand, and 
an aboriginal population of several hundred thousand. 
And these schools were, to a great extent, destitute of 
books, maps, paper, slates, and all aids to instruction. 
On his return, this Society immediately sent out a 
supply of books, slates, pencils, maps, paper and ink, 
to the value of over $1800, and since then has directed 
its efforts chiefly to promoting primary education. 
There is ample encouragement to efforts in this. 



156 THE PEOPLE OF AFKICA. 

direction. Every village and every settlement of 
colonists is anxious for a school, and the head men of 
the native towns for a great distance into the interior, 
urgently ask for schools where their children may be 
taught the "America man's" language and "fash." 
The government of Liberia has, since the visit of our 
secretary, enacted laws requiring schools to be 
established, but the act is almost a dead letter for the 
want of means to carry it into effect. It will be some 
years before the people will be able to maintain their 
own schools, and until then, if aid is not afforded them 
from abroad, a large proportion of their children will 
grow up in ignorance. Had this Society the means, 
it could at once establish a hundred schools, which, 
attended by many thousands of colonists and aborigi- 
nal children, w r ould help to prepare a generation to 
carry on the work as the capacities of the republic 
are developed. The first schools would not be of as 
high grade as are our common schools in New* York. 
Teachers of such schools cannot be obtained. But 
there can be obtained on the ground, teachers to keep 
schools which would compare with many which, wdth- 
in a quarter of a century, could be found in our new 
settlements, taught by young women whose early edu- 
cation w-as only to read, write and cipher. Such 
schools in multitudes of cases elevated themselves ; 
and by aid of modern school-books their teachers also 
educated themselves, and became qualified to teach 
branches of learning of which at first they w^ere 
profoundly ignorant. Elihu Burritt well said, that to 
know how to read is the key to all learning. Such 
schools were the germs of the valuable ones which are 



HELP FOR AN EDUCATION. 157 

now everywhere found, the pride of all our citizens as. 
well as the safeguards of our institutions. A very 
small outlay will now maintain such a school, and 
Avhen one is establfshed, we have a right to expect it to 
improve and prepare pupils to become teachers o- 
schools of much higher grade. 



All remittances for the New York State Colonization 
Society should be made to Isaac T. Smith, Treasurer, 
at the Metropolitan Savings Bank, No. 123 Third 
Avenue, or to the Corresponding Secretary, Rev. J. B. 
Pinney, Room 42, Bible House. 



